Dancing on the Water & Giant Sloth

It's like the sun is dancing on the water!

I just love to watch the interplay of the sunlight on the sea. Equally impressive, but harder to photograph with my point and shoot camera, is the moon on the water at night (see posts of October 11 and 25, 2014).)

February weather has ranged from freezing to 80 degrees Fahrenheit (27 C) with alternating bright sunshine and low hanging gray, gray cloud blankets (British grey I call this) and frequent bouts of fog; 2nd week of this weather pattern & a weird weather month here and I guess everywhere.

Nevertheless the osprey are preparing for spring.  This week we saw one fly past with nest material in it's talons -- selected from the wrack; there is a nest on the building next door. Friday morning near Gandy bridge an osprey was returning to the nest with a LARGE fish, as big as he was, to feed the young'ins.

Skeleton of Giant Ground Sloth

claw missing nail of giant sloth

Friday Mini Me attended a lecture on "12 Million Years of Florida's Natural History in an Hour" by Dr Bob Encinosa.  We learnt about fearsome Florida animals of the Pleistocene epoch (last ice age):  the Giant Ground Sloth (20 feet long, weighing 40,000 lbs), the sabre-toothed tiger (aka cat) and mammoths.  Glad not to be living 10 million years ago!!

Foreground is sabre-toothed tiger skull

Leaving downtown Tampa, we drove past a fun building - the local bank tower topped by what one can only say looks like a church.

100 North Tampa - 42 stories
1990s postmodern building

On her way home mini me popped into the local Quilt Show and was excited to see so many quilts, a lovely show. She met very friendly members of the local quilting group - Largo Crackers. Alas mini me did not find a new Spring outfit (LOL!!).

Grins or Grimace?

Quilts included marine scenes (mini me's favourite), autumn/Halloween scenes (just plan fun) and . . . . . . . . a very quirky one - taken just for my London Quirky Quilting friends!

Yes, you are seeing correctly
twinkling Christmas lights on a quilt!

I did notice the backs of these quilts are much more colourful and 'funky' than most UK quilts - something I love!


More quilt pictures at the end of this blog post.




Saturday was time for the annual Pass-A-Grille (PAG) Home Tour of the Historic District; historic in this case meaning mid 20th Century homes. It was chucking it down with rain, so Mini Me stayed well hidden only peaking out from life sized me's handbag once safe and dry inside.

This house, built in 1980, and recently renovated looked like the inside of Coastal Living magazine. Gorgeous, but didn't look lived in with no real personal effects.

Apparently one is not supposed to take inside pictures, so mini me and I resorted to external shots of the older, 1950's homes:

Bananas growing outside this 1940's home
Mini me would love an orange tree on her balcony!

Wetness invaded the point and shoot camera which became tetchy about taking more photos; it was already starting to wobble, so hope it can recover. Heavy rain took out many of the traffic lights (mild flooding on the roads) and soaked life sized me who jumped in the hot tub (despite the rain) as soon as she got home!

Here's more quilts to cheer us all up on a damp rainy day!

See if you can read the captions on each block!

For Helen - can you find the bee?