A beachy & squally New Years to You!

Pinellas prepares for the Great Tornado Drill

                      Take shelter and a selfie to participate in the Jan. 6 exercise

was today's headline, with the weather report including both a High Surf Advisory (5 feet or more) and A Life Threatening Rip Current Statement. We were also due for an exceptional high tide overnight.

Our County's Great Tornado Drill instructions are below and come complete with a request [not shown below] to post on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.  The drill is probably a good idea given the recent spate of tornadoes touching down in hurricane alley and the southern US. Still one has to see the humorous side of taking selfies in a closet or inside bathroom - the likely 'shelter' for those of us without basements (ie most of Florida as we were built on a swamp).

Everyone is urged to participate. Businesses, organizations, families and individuals are asked to first identify a shelter and their source of emergency alerts, such as messages received on a mobile phone, weather radio or other notification service. The alerts should be loud enough to wake a person up if a tornado were to hit in the middle of the night.

Then at 10 a.m. on Wednesday, Jan. 6, the NWS will issue a test alert through the Weather Alert Radios only, following a scenario that a tornado is in the area, and warning people to take shelter. Regardless of whether the alert is heard at 10 a.m., participants should practice taking cover and then take a selfie of their group.

What's inside?

After opening a few Christmas gifts, it was time for a Christmas Day beach walk in shorts and sunglasses. Unlike last year when Nov & Dec (13 Dec 2014 post) had a distinctly chilly feel, it has been unseasonably hot and very humid (read muggy).

Here's what we found.

With the holidays there is  bit of time for quilting - this is going to be a cover for a framed mirror (family heirloom) -- to ensure the bright Florida sun does not reflect onto my antique quilt (posts of 22 March & 20 June 2015) and fade it. Manatee is from a zebrapatterns.com sea life collection pattern that I adjusted from a square to a rectangle to fit my mirror frame - a first machine stitch applique for me.

The frame

wall quilt under construction

NB/Note:  Americans are big into the row by row experience and license plate fabric panels - to see more visit Country Bears & Quilts Shop.

Shop's 2015 Challenge Winner: Doris Drown

Karen Pieczonka
Row by Row Winner

Fabric License Plate Panel

The weather outside is . . . Christmassy!

Well the temperature and more importantly the humidity has plummeted (well OK dropped to 51 F/11 C overnight and from 99% humidity to 38%), enough to drive away those cownose stingrays mentioned in the last blog . . . but not before Kenny, our intrepid beach raker, got this video.

Must say this is the first morning mini me welcomed the heat from the hair dryer on her   body as usually it is too hot and humid to appreciate a warm blast on the head!!

You never know what you will see on the beach and here was this week's interesting sight - not that salt water is good for one's bicycle, but hey it looks fun!

Wind is up, humidity down; we have a rip current and a RED tide warning in effect. The beach joggers are all bundled up with hoodies and mittens. Musical instruments, however, don't fare well in cooler weather, so this winter front meant the outdoor Christmas Florida Orchestra concert last night was cancelled.

But mini me has gotten on with holiday festivities including . . .

Welsh cheese straws made with friend Sharon

LARGE wine glass painting with
neighbour Diane
note the flip flop footwear

. . . a spot of quilting to take the place of a door wreath.  Pattern given to mini me by her Quirky Quilting friends (and creator!), but of course life sized me felt she could improve upon the pattern - what do you think?  A bit more quilting wouldn't go amiss, but we were keen to put it on the door.

the result

the pattern

No Florida Christmas would be complete without a special local song and a boat parade or several.

We were invited to a Treasure Island Boat Viewing House Party this year; the wind and lower temperatures kept the number of entries down and the boats sped along (rougher water means faster speeds to retain control of the boats), but there was the usual boat hooters honking and 'Merry Christmas' shouting (likely alcohol fueled - this is Florida after all). The highlight was the turtle boat, and the flippers were animated swimming through the air!

Florida Jingle Bells

standing at end of dock looking at house party

Dashing through the sand, in a rented minivan
Driving by the bay, laughing all the way.
Tourists drive too slow, everywhere you go,
Oh what fun it is to live in sunny F.L.A.


Chorus
Jingle Bells, Coconut shells
Dolphins in the bay
Oh what fun it is to live in sunny F.L.A.
Orange juice stands, Mickey Mouse land

see the hatchling at the back?

Gators in your way,
Oh what fun it is to live in sunny F.L.A.

Crowded shopping malls, Lotto and BIngo halls,
Sunshine that's too hot, a football team that's not.
When Santa hits the shores, He finds stingrays galore,

Oh what fun it is to live in sunny F.L.A! 

As my British friends would say, it is feeling very 'fresh' outside.

Happy Christmas (or Merry Christmas to our American friends) and all best wishes for 2016!

Thought I had seen it all ... Beach Life & Small Rivertown America

Well, just when I thought I had seen it all, but what should pass us in St Petersburg, but the ultimate in drinking and driving - a Pedal Pub!! There's an open seat if you are interested  . . .

and back at the beach a digital advertising blimp floated by - but the digital sign was too far away to read - someone wasted their advertising dollar.

Now in the Gulf we have red tide warnings --- which may account for the large number of stingrays we are seeing right up in the surf line - apparently a bunch of stingrays is not a school, but called a 'fever' and they tend to hunt together. Those dark shapes in the water are the stingrays visible from our 3rd floor balcony!  Mini me is not going in the water anytime soon!!

Back in the house we got some new hurricane windows - apparently the whole building could fall down, but the windows would be intact.  Mini me couldn't watch, but is glad to report all went smoothly and it was a relatively clean operation.

at the Peabody Hotel, Memphis

Life sized me and hubby took a little holiday over American Thanksgiving on the American Queen, a steam-driven paddlesteamer, down the Mississippi River. We started in Memphis visiting Graceland, seeing a mock-up of the first self-serve grocery (Piggly Wiggly in 1916), along with making a few purchases at the Metal Museum. There was a spot of fun watching the 'world famous' Peabody ducks who swim in the hotel fountain daily and then waddle down a red carpet to ride the lift (elevator) up to their rooftop home each evening.

On board the American Queen, loaner bicycles meant we could explore all the little towns along the river on our own, including a number of plantations (complete with crazy quilts and video extolling virtues of healthy sugar!). At Oak Alley we found the sugar cane harvest in full swing and a farmer delighted we had an interest.

This sign in our hotel, the Q&C, in New Orleans gave us a good laugh.

We finished off the trip by train (yes, an American passenger train - double decker no less) from New Orleans thorough Jackson Mississippi back to Memphis.  In Jackson we found a petrified forest complete with petrified sea turtle skull. Back in Memphis we completed our adventure with a sobering trip through the National Civil Rights Museum (bringing the slave plantation story right up to date!).

 A new friend has just opened Flip Flop Quilt Shop in St Petersburg (www.facebook.com/flipflopquiltshop) and with some new thread I am getting on with some Christmas decorations. Andrea is looking for volunteers to teach a few classes, so if you fancy some time in St Petersburg . . .

And the birds are flocking together getting ready to migrate . . . eating berries and bombarding our car like we are in a hail storm!

Expeditions & Small Town America

On a Thursday we went to Movies in the Park. We saw a documentary by the Florida Wildlife Corridor: Expedition - Everglades to Okefenokee.

The most interesting part of the film was to see the path of a Florida Brown Bear (skinny compared to those up North!) who roamed 500 miles in 2 months only stopped by the I4 Freeway (motorway to mini me's British friends).  On the I75, wildlife underpasses have almost completely stopped road kill.

A second film, 'The Forgotten Coast' (about the Florida panhandle) premiered Thursday the 12 November and will be on public television (WUSF; Channel 16.1 here in Mad Beach) the following Thursday.

The next Saturday it was up early for mini me and swimmy - off to Shell Key (nearby barrier island and wildlife refuge) for a beach clean up.  Swimmy's loggerhead friends nest there, so a clean-up is imperative for next year's turtle season. More pics here.

Shell Key is an 'E' shaped sand spit in the delta of Tampa Bay - the second largest delta after the mouth of the Mississippi River - and this island is constantly shifting and changing. 30 years ago Shell Key didn't exist; today the sand has moved to form a [rather rocky and rough] land bridge to other nearby islands and dredged 'finger' lands of waterfront homes. Needless to say this is causing some controversy amongst homeowners and conservationists.

Our turtle season is done, but just south over the Skyway Bridge at Anna Maria Island, there is still a nest as of the 8th November! At night we can see the lights of Anna Maria - so not far from us.

Wondering what a local does on a Florida weekend? Well first it was the City's annual Deputy Sheriff's Appreciation Party Saturday afternoon  Here's the Deputies, each got a goodies bag of candies labeled things like 'Gum, for helping to keep us together' and 'Hershey's Kiss's to remember our appreciation.' Food and live music were the order of the day.

Setting up - see bridge in background

Sunday was the 3rd Annual Gulf Beaches Historical Museum's fundraiser: The Chowder Challenge. Chowder of course being historically what local fisherman made of the  spare bits after fillleting their catch. 22 local restaurants brew up their best seafood chowder and for $15 one gets to sample each (in a small cup) and vote for the one you find the tastiest. The winner receives The Golden Laddle Award to hang in their restaurant lobby for a year.  Hubby and I volunteered to sell tickets for drinks and homemade desserts - which are a bit extra cash - this is a fundraiser after all. Live music, good grub, kids and dogs both welcome.

Yup, gray windy, circa 75 degrees - perfect Chowder weather!

To top off the weekend, we borrowed the 2002 movie 'Sunshine State' from our local library.  This was a 'Movie in the Park' feature where we got rained out recently.  Sunshine State, with Angela Bassett and Timothy Hutton, is about a small Florida seaside town threatened with development (never mind it was filmed mainly in the center of Florida with no beach whatsoever). The first hour of the flick will give you an idea of what living in a Florida beach community is like, but sadly the movie just stops -- no real ending at all (something my London book club has been experiencing and complaining of lately). The upside is our small local library has a great inter-library loan program and we got the movie for free.

Tourist season has now begun; the roads fill up with Canadian and then northern states' license plates (a few Alaskans even), and it becomes hard to get a table in a restaurant. We are under a 'Beach Hazard Statement' for Red Tide; fortunately we have not felt the impact to date. Sharks continue to make the news -- and they can be tracked in the Gulf waters here.

And a few beach sights:

Nothing stops this mobility scooter!

Moon reflection off runnel
looks like a torch (AE=flashlight)

Sunsets vary so much - never ceases to amaze me!

Beach Brain = Addled

Mini Me has coined a new term 'Beach Brain' to describe her experiences living  & now working part-time in a beach community in Florida. Sometimes called Beach Brain Mush.

Pronunciation: /bēCH/ /brān/
The failure of the soft nervous tissue contained in the skull to function as the coordinating center for a human being. Note: animals do not suffer from beach brain.

In reality it is not about more time off, rather LESS!

Often speculated to be brought on by sun and high quantities of alcohol, beach brain manifests as impairments in thinking: repetitive, fuzzy rationale, general lack of logic and/or absent awareness of impeding consequences of seemingly simple actions. Once beach brain sets in, it is hard to reverse; afflicted individuals are seemingly unaware of their condition.

Most commonly observed when the individual sentences uttered by a person are complete, but coupled together with adjacent sentences the overall meaning is disjointed, contradictory or makes no logical sense at all.  Often friendly, however, some are egomaniac in a small-town way, ie 'explanations & thoughts don't add up.'  In short, as my friend Gwen said 'People just don't think things through!'

Interacting with such individuals is guaranteed to be S-L-O-W, imprecise, inconsistent, and highly tactical in the moment - you could say 'fluid.'  It is also highly amusing if you don't mind that logical thinking and action rarely prevail.  Coupled with a 1950's patronizing 'Big Fish in Small Pond' attitude, well . . . I leave it to your imagination --

Back to the beach and FUN - we were delighted to have family visitors recently.

UK house guests mean we get to do a bit more touristy fun things.  This included a trip to the Florida Aquarium in Tampa with these amazing sea dragons and nesting Roseate Spoonbills.

Leafy Sea Dragon
from Southwest Australia

Sticker Received
ID cards available too! LOL

Now that "Winter" (non-rainy season)is upon us, turtle season is over, the humidity has dropped, we have a lovely breeze and the daytime temperatures are below 90 F (32 C). "Winter" brings stone crab season (opened on the 15 October); the buoys for the traps are bobbing in the surf outside our door; they harvest one claw of each crab which then regenerates in about 3 years time. LARGE spotted stingrays leap out of the water, they say this is mating behaviour. And the beach has developed a sharper incline over the past 2 weeks - is that nature's way of preparing for winter?

For us humans, winter means we have the opportunity to get a flu shot at the drive-through, so we can 'remain in our car'!!  Yes, really.

Photo by Carlton Ward
www.carltonward.com

<100 left; Florida Panther
Photo by Carlton Ward

Recently we learnt of an exciting project, The Florida Wildlife Corridor, which holds a vision to protect the state's habitat for native wildlife and
has documented Florida wilderness in film and breathtaking photos.

Sadly the corridor doesn't come near us in Tampa!

Just for comparison Florida is 2/3 the size of Britain with 20 million people vs Britain's 60 million.  We could almost be a country!

My favorite friends are back out front in great numbers, diving for fish near shore, soaring through the air and generally hanging out. When beach brain sets it, I occasionally call them penguins - who knows what synapse get mucked up.

Brown Pelicans, not penguins!

Recently we had another unique sunset - swirling clouds - again the camera doesn't really do it justice, but have a look . . . to celebrate mini me's 100th post.

The stores are full of Halloween, Thanksgiving and yes Christmas decorations and trinkets competing for space.  Mini me is off to do some machine quilting!

It brings a smile to mini me's face that in sub-tropical Florida, we decorate with colorful fall leaves + snow and advertise cold medicine on TV with blizzards that don't occur here in Tampa. Irony, however, is not a national pastime and hence the incongruity is lost on many locals.

Saga of N159; Going Going, ...

You may recall our excitement that N159 was laid on July 6th just after we left for a holiday in North Carolina and Virginia. So upon our return we found two nests out front of our condo - what a delight and so much excitement for mini me!

A combination of Spring Tides, made even higher by unusually big storms, destroyed one nest and created a wash over for the other - ut oh we thought, but still full of hope we began the countdown to hatching.

The CMA came to install the restraining cage over the nest at day 45. The cage prevents the hatchlings from walking into the artificial lights of our condo and street which would mean certain death.

So we watched and waited checking diligently each evening beginning from day 50 through the 'typical hatch window' to day 60. NOTHING!!

Tough job hey?!?

Some days the CMA sent nest sitters to watch over the nest from sunset to 1:00 am.  Other days we were alone in the vigil.

CMA still dropped by each day to close the restraining cage at sunset and open it at sunrise. Nothing.

At least in recent weeks the heron, and some American oyster catchers (shore bird) have graced our beach along with . . .

This heron has his eye on the fisherman's catch

Dolphins cruising for a snack just off-shore of our condo

Yes, the sun is that bright,
can you see the pelicans ?

pods of dolphins and pods of pelicans returning in abundance after a scarcity this summer. Maybe the recent drop in humidity has something to do with the wildlife returning? They provide much entertainment to divert our gaze from the static turtle nest.

About day 77 or 78, a ghost crab hole appeared near the nest under the restraining cage.  Had the crab eaten the eggs, made his home alongside the eggs or was he just a neighbour? Hard to tell, but one good sign:  no cracked-open eggs appeared - that would have been a sure sign he had a feast.

At long last day 80 (24 September) arrived and according to the FWC guidelines it was time to inventory the nest. Sure enough the eggs were found - and no the ghost crab had not invaded - he only took up neighborly residence. 124 eggs had been laid, but the high tides had drown them out early on and only a couple had even begun to develop -- so N159 was a total loss.

Swimmy (mini me's side-kick) took it especially hard.  Sad, but such are the ways of nature.

Swimmy I know they were your cousins,
but don't put your head in the sand!

Many nests were hit, but fortunately some survived and a few were laid after the  storms - so onward for the sea turtles who out-survived the dinosaurs!

All that's left are our footprints . . .

volunteer party cake

Here most likely endeth the turtle saga for the 2015 season.

End of season turtle party for volunteers is Saturday the 26th September.


There was a spot of blue crab fishing alongside our party (stick a piece of raw chicken on a string and throw into the lake and out comes a blue crab!).  They have green bodies and yup - BLUE legs.

Am off now for Aqua Zumba in a chilled swimming pool, yes you read that right - a chilled pool - best to stay in the cooler waters of the pool during the shark season of August and September.

A mystery that appeared one morning

Tonight mini me is off to a movie in the park shown on a blow-up movie screen; Sunshine State (2002, Angela Bassett) is the movie title.

There is always more on the beach - what do you think made this pile of sand .  . .?