Beach as Living Room

A recent dinner out with our dining group at a new restaurant gave us this unusual flat screen TV/wall decor - and yup you guessed it the company was great, but the food . . . well my appetizer was tasty, but the main course never arrived!

Back home, those new hurricane-rated windows necessitated a change to my window coverings; I believe I am the first US installation of a Louvolite Vision Blind!  I love it.  You must watch it in operation -- here.

Out my windows overlooking the beach I have plenty to see. Well most of the time - a very dense fog rolled in one night.  At daybreak I couldn't even see the sea which is only 125 feet (~40 metres) from my window! It cleared a bit as you can see, but unusually hung about for 2 days!

High winds on the Gulf have played havoc with the swim buoys. They mark the area for boats to avoid at the public beach just north of us. Several times the buoys have ended up outside our window - here's one being retrieved. It took 5 young strong guys to hoist the buoy weight onto the bed of that pickup.

High winds and tides also mean more work for the beach rakers who are out in force.  It is also fun for the kite gliders, kite flyers and assorted watercraft . . . although one glider seemed unable to control his kite, lost his surfboard, and mini me almost called 911 (999 in the UK).

I wanta do this says mini me

Where's my board?
Woman on right helped him get the kite down

Plenty of time for building castles or pyramids in the sun. The birds are mating and the osprey building nests again - although capturing them on film with wrack in their talons is a bit harder ...

Some creations are truly fantastic AND it's almost turtle season!

Catch ya later . . . oops and then one dead one washed up on our shores Easter Monday . . . confirmed it is a sub adult Kemp's Ridley Turtle - rare and endangered - with a boat strike as cause of death; he was carted off by the CMA. Not something you want to see out the window!

But we had a fantastic Easter lamb meal with condo friends complete with Easter bunnies (see how to make your own here).

Lakeland Quilt Show & Tree Wrap

It's time for the Lakeland Sewing & Quilt Expo about an hour from Tampa.

Adorable! by Ellen Ault
Yup Hedgehogs

Lots to see and do - I took five courses and couldn't see straight by the end, but learnt lots and really enjoyed myself. First a session on needles - boy was I glad to finally understand that.

Then a new basting technique in a hoop-less hand quilting course - at last I feel I am fine to quilt without a hoop! And this technique is meant to keep the sandwich very stable. Taught by the award winning Sharon Schamber. She also uses freezer paper to transfer designs to avoid any movment of the fabric whilst tracing.  Clever.

A short lecture on paper piecing finished the day.

Next day, on to faux piping binding - really something that looks like a double mount in a picture frame - very easy and we all love it! There are two examples by Kaye Koler in this picture.

Bleeding Heart by Helene Weber

And lastly some applique - which taught 3 techniques in one course.  I made a perfect mitred corner first time out!

Note also the bike sculpture used as bike rack in front

There were other amusements in Lakeland, notably this display in the town square - Mung Park.

see the turtle? They follow me everywhere!

Hubbard's Catch

Local finds - to the left a juvenile sea turtle caught in fishing net and to the right a seahorse on the side of the fishing fleet before leaving harbour. And here a playful dolphin - all at Hubbard's Marina 1.5 miles down the beach from my home. Photos courtesy of Hubbards.

An edited extract from Captain Jack's marine report of 4th March 2016 - he is based at Hubbard's Marina and tells the story better than I could:

Recently at Egmont Key the large pods of dolphins have been coming alongside the ferry ride. During a recent ferry trip, a large container ship was heading into the bay and we noticed their large bow wave had attracted a big pod of dolphin playing in the wake jumping super high super high in the air as the ship headed into port. This was a very cool and unique sight! The local seabirds are starting their mating habits. Most of the birds get a very unique looking mating plumage during this time and they will roost in the trees of dog leg Key Island, our local island rookery inside Johns Pass. This includes the roseate spoonbills, pink birds mistaken for flamingos but they are not actually pink they are white birds that eat a type of crustaceans that causes their feathers to get a pink hue to them. The local great American egrets have started to sport their mating plumage again so the pelicans aren't the only seabirds gearing up for the spring mating season. These egret's mating plumage nearly caused their extinction in the 1920's and 30's when the long wispy feathers along the bird's back became super popular in lady's hats causing hunters to nearly drive these great American egrets to extinction. They became the first seabirds protected by the national autobahn society after this nearly complete wipe out of their population. Unfortunately the weather has become too cold for our local manatee population. This means they have moved north to the natural springs for the winter or to the local power plant outflows where the water stays 72 degrees or higher all year around. Since manatees are marine mammals its important they stay in waters above 72 to help them regulate their body temperatures.

The Hubbard's fishing fleet routinely catches large quantities of very large fish as evidenced here - to see more of what and how big visit their site here or to catch the sights when fishing boats come in, their webcams here.