What do you do living on the FL Beach?

Well, it is a different life in a beach community.  Here's what we did one recent weekend.

over 80 shuffleboard courts at the club!

• Friday - Shuffleboard lessons at the St Petersburg ShuffleBoard Club - the world's largest club and the home to the original shuffleboard rules!

• Saturday - MarineQuest - put on by FWC (state of Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission) for families and very informative no matter you age.

  

  Demonstrating manatee rescue

sea grasses; don't  pull them up yourself!!

pound cake - a messy affair

• Sunday - Cake making lessons at St Pete Bakery - the bakery's claim to fame is European style baking as the only bakery in the county that makes everything from scratch (vs bought in cake mixes)!

how about this one?

And of course we're helping the local turtle charity find a new UTV and getting on with all our volunteer activities.

Mini me has stated that Florida is weird (even the Floridians admit that and have radio/TV programmes proudly proclaiming such with evidence - as if more was needed!). So we were  watching the antics on the road; ever seen a carboat? - It went by so fast I missed getting the shot with my smartphone, but here's the idea.

And Mandy Trapka, a local house painter, closed the main street (Gulf Blvd) to host a flashmob

courtesty Bay News 9 - 2 blocks up the road from me

spoof. Here's the  the newsarticle, and the uncut youtube video sans music. Mandy wants to brighten things up and planned a flashmob dance modeled off of The Ellen DeGeneres Oscars Trailer spoof. Ellen DeGeneres in turn was doing a spoof of the original from Fitz and the Tantrums The Walker.  Mandy will try and get her local flashmob video shown on the Ellen DeGeneres show.  

and for my Quirky friends, one can always go to a local knit shop - Stash - and watch the history of knitting on youtube! Actually it is fun to watch.

Out our window this morning the bobbing white bouys of the stone crab traps are being checked by several local, competing fisherman (season opened October 15 and you take one claw). They must also contend with the pelicans watching them closely, and the Gulf swimmer has just gone by on his daily trek. The coastguard helicopters are out practicing rescue maneuvers too.

Nature note of the day:  a group of Pelicans is a Pod, Squadron or Scoop.  Turtle groups are bales. One recent night 4 Great Blue Herons were doing territorial dances and squawking along our stretch of beach; the next morning the Pelicans are fishing into a sea sparkling like jewels.

out our window last night

Crafty Mini Me

                                          [turtle news at the bottom of this post]

Mini Me all caught up
in sewing with her new
quirky gift

'The Burn' - a fiery business!

I had a grand birthday with wonderful gifts from my London Quirky Quilting Friends - which of course inspired me to get going on a few projects. 

Saturday I was invited round to local friends for a spot of ink painting on pottery. With no idea what I was getting into . . . but up for some fun and an offer of a ride to boot -no not in the boot (AE=trunk) - how could I not go along? And yes, spots were involved - lol.

With ink painting one has to accept you have only limited control over the outcome - ie you get to pick the paint colours, apply them (dropping spots of ink) and determine the number of times you go for the 'burn' - but how the inks melt and form is an act of nature!

the inky pottery result - coasters

Saturday finished with a tasty dinner at Sandra's, a local German restaurant, with our dining club friends. A recent venture into St Petersburg discovered The Mill Restaurant with unique sinks in the ladies' and men's loos (AE=restroom). Can you guess which is which?


Mini me has also done a bit of home decorating - first something to match the beach stripes upon entry to her condo and brighten up the back of the metal [fire regulation] front door.  With a metal door, one can creatively sew in magnetic strips to hang quilted objects.

Extended recent travel (UK post to come), meant the balcony lemon tree had to go. Disappointed that after so many lemon buds dropped and only one very hard green lemon fruit actually appeared the loss isn't too great.

Look what is taking the lemon tree's place.  It brings a smile to my face every time I pass by it. It's not quite finished but I have to share - the white bit will be covered with sea shells.

Wednesday (the 19th) was a gorgeous morning on the beach. Tasty fish were swimming near shore so there were hundreds of pelicans and birds diving for breakfast.  We inventoried the last turtle nest of the season.  Sadly all 96 eggs were drown in Hurricane Hermine.  Just a reminder only those on a FWC permit can inventory or dig into sea turtle nests!

Pelicans feeding at dawn

Here we are inventorying the nest.

Unhatched eggs with sea oat roots growing round them!

PS Here's the finished flower pot.

Colin, Hermine, and Matthew - yes all Hurricanes/Tropical Storms

Yes, it has been a busy season for tropical storms and hurricanes here in Florida.  What is the difference you ask?  Well in a phrase - wind speed; a TS has winds between 40 mph and  73 mph and a hurricane has winds in excess of 73 mph graded 1-5 on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Scale used to rate hurricane intensity.

Sandy pool

A storm system can be a hurricane in one place and further from the eye a TS.  TS Colin visited us in early June and just rattled our hurricane shutters (see post & pictures of 6 June 2016).

Hurricane Hermine passed by us staying out in the Gulf. She made landfall north of here in early September and created the biggest impact on our beach. Hermine threw sand up into our pool area and parking garage under our building as well as cutting away at the sand dunes. We were out of town and missed all the action.

Hermine undercut the dunes

Parking under building full of sand

Hurricane Matthew, a category 4 hurricane (winds 130+ mph), came up the east coast of Florida. Arriving overnight October 6/7, he only brought us heavy seas and strong winds moving the sand about on the beach, but not cutting into any dunes . Driving back from North Carolina at the time, we had to out run Matthew.

After attending a family wedding, we left North Carolina Tuesday morning planning to take our time and do a bit of sightseeing on our way back to Florida. Straight through it is an 8-10 hour drive.

Wall Quilt for niece's wedding
he  is musical (top left) and she has dogs (bottom right)

Preparing to load logging truck

Watching the TV morning news on Wednesday we saw the mandatory evacuations (and queues at petrol stations!) of the east coast and thought evacuatees were coming our way looking for hotel rooms. After a few phone calls we discovered there were only a few rooms available for Wednesday night and NONE for Thursday or Friday within a 500 mile radius. So we hightailed it to the only room we found anywhere near our route in Valdosta for Wednesday evening. Drove the rest of the way Thursday outrunning Matthew before 'he' made it to central Florida.

Georgia cotton field

We did pass many lumber trucks taking their pine logs to two different sawmills/lumber yards en route, 2 deer meat processing plants (venison), lots of cotton and peanuts growing and followed a few peanut and corn trucks loaded high.

There were pecan and peach orchards lining the roads and utility trucks heading south. We traveled most of the way cross country thus avoiding evacuees and supply trucks.

should be vertical!

Sunset post Matthew

We topped up the petrol tank, bought some groceries, filled the bathtub with water and pulled down the hurricane shutters. Matthew passed us by as we slept in Friday morning. Reminds me of another hurricane I slept through years ago in Houston Only damage we found upon returning home was the strut of our hurricane shutters pushed out - from Hermine we think.  We are very fortunate!!