Wednesday 20 December 2017

A Florida Christmas

Christmas in Florida!  Here's a Christmas tree decorated with oranges and advertising panels/branding from old-time Florida orange crates. Need I say more?

Driving around there are lots of lights and decorations.  One guy even plays Christmas carols and has mechanized statutes that move to the tunes.

But more frequently one hears the sound of an air blower (like a big fan) to keep inflatables of all sorts upright.  Weirdly, most only run their blowers at night, so during the day the decorations are a deflated blob on the lawn.











So here's the deflated decorations - an orangeish blob in the yard with a hard plastic Santa looking on.

And here's an exception to the rule - a fully inflated Santa almost as tall as this two story house - inflated during the day (complete with noisy blower and, out of picture, animated blow-up reindeer drinking from a trough)! Go figure . . .



But the best bit was a tour of 1920s homes in the section of St Petersburg known as 'the Old Northeast.' The homes are decorated inside and out for the holidays. For us, that kicked off a run of 6 Christmas parties in 8 days.
Serenaded by hand bells on the home tour

I even made the front page of our local paper. And have had more fun making little Christmas ornaments -  a good break from cleaning up the second water leak in 6 months (from the unit above this time). It took a specialist 3 hours to find the leak - thankfully not much damage, but lots of hassle moving furniture, pulling up carpet, repairing drywall.

Today Duke Energy turned off our power at 10:3 am to finally replace the wooden light pole that caught fire last summer (see post of 6 August 2017).

At 5:00 pm we heard a big bang and saw sparks as, having finished installing the new pole, they tried to restore power. At 8:06 pm with 5 Duke Energy trucks on-site our lights finally came back on! Felt like a hurricane rehearsal - let's hope not!

And for some more Florida fun, here's a local mishap.; it had been propped up for several weeks looking like it was about to be moved to a new location, and then one day . . .


. . . not sure how the house move turned into this disaster, but the plot of land is for sale.

See the back of the building up in the air and the front crushed?

Our weather has been all over the place - as cold as 45F (7C) and as warm as 82F (28C) with lots of wind. Tuesday morning we had heavy fog. But many beautiful sunsets.  


Hubby's sent out some Christmas letters, but I haven't managed to address any - yikes. But I do wish you all Happy Holidays!

I expect on our beach we will find a fir tree decorated with ornaments on Christmas Day. It's never dull living on the beach!

Thursday 23 November 2017

MB "Downtown" or "City Center"

OK, quirky quilting friends in London asked to see what my "downtown" looks like - I think they are hoping for 1950's beach charm - what is known here as "Old Florida" but often means beachy version of slightly run down American wild west.

Here's our new modern city hall building and 'downtown' Madeira Beach (click for map) - don't blink and don't get too excited! We also have a new fire station, small library, chemist (AE=drugstore) and grocery store within walking distance.

Very quiet and breezy on Thanksgiving Day at a'chilly/damp' 73 F (22 C).

Madeira Way
Periodic Craft Market on Madeira Way


here's our beach 'Snack Shak' at Archibald Beach Park

1.5 miles down the road is out 'tourist shopping area' known as Johns Pass (in 1848 a hurricane blew through and separated MB from Treasure Island creating a break in the sandy barrier island first noticed by fisherman John and hence known as Johns Pass - so hence the 'fishing village' tourist area is known as Johns Pass).

That's it folks! But keep reading for my holiday 'taking a break' blog post below.

2x Happy Holidays

We have returned from the 1st Annual Sea Turtle Trackers End of Season Celebration Cruise (a record year for sea turtle nesting here in Florida) to Roatan, Honduras and Cozumel, Mexico and now ...

... it is what mini me calls the 'Silly Season' here in the USA with Black Friday and Cyber Monday in the run-up to Thanksgiving (always the 4th Thursday in November with Friday as a day off as well) and Christmas. Two major family holidays so close together means it is hard to get most anything done other than conspicuous consumption of food and material goods!!

For my UK friends: Since Thanksgivig is the only 4 day holiday in the USA (where 1 in 4 move home long-distance in any given year), it is also the busiest travel weekend as many people have family get-togethers for this holiday. Each year some American asks me if Thanksgiving is celebrated in the UK and I gently remind them of the origins of the holiday.

So mini me has been busy crafting charity pillows (only 100 this year) and gifts. Now is the time for taking a blogging hiatus/rest!  Happy Holidays and all the best for 2018!!


Table topper /hot pad

wine bottle cozy


Sunday 5 November 2017

Beach Finds



our shimmering sands
After last Sunday's rough seas (with high surf advisory on the 29th October), we had a bit of debris on the beach.

stone crab pot washed ashore
so many sponges we thought of a new business . . . 

stone crab fisherman
they take only 1 claw
picture through my new 'scope'
 
new local 'tram' - but boarding with a shopping trolly???

Dune Restoration under state permit 

But some dunes grow on their own - anywhere
including over the sea wall and into the condo block!

And this weekend was the 'King of the Beach' fishing tournament and general town outing. You can see the event for yourself - notice the full moon.


why do bands always start late?
Good for hurricane flood waters?



And for those who like sunsets-those are pelicans on the wing


PS Tuesday the 7th November saw a rescue of a pelican with broken wing just in front of our condo; s/he has gone to rehab . . (bird in arms of man in green on left)

Monday 9 October 2017

Hurricane Nate Sculpts & Cleans Our Beach

Hello Nate!
Well I spoke too soon. Temperatures in the 90s F (~33C) are back and it is very muggy & sticky. Ah well, we still have a little breeze. I have been waiting to see if the tide goes under our building into the parking garage - let me explain.

Things were pretty quiet on the beach . ..  a fair number of people out, sand washed back in from Hurricane Irma; life was  . . . well dull.


The biggest excitement was this cherry picker with caterpillar tracks moving down the beach and a silly silly woman feeding the birds looking like the pied piper as they followed her on her sandy stroll . You can see in these photos the Gulf of Mexico looks as calm as a small pond.


Our impact from Hurricane Nate, arrived Saturday the 7th October.

surfing with a float!
Over the past few days we had onshore to offshore winds that pushed water away from the beach.  We also had a full moon and hence a high Spring Tide.

The winds and waves bring out the kite surfers, body surfers and the kid in all of us. Saturday afternoon the water approached our under building parking . . .

These two things - wind blowing offshore and Spring Tide - combined with Hurricane Nate travelling through and stirring up the Gulf brought back the water pushed outward. Hence the groynes were totally submerged and hidden. The size of the waves and the height of the tide on the beach has waxed and waned over the past day.


See how the dunes protect the beach -- except where there aren't dunes . . . and hence water comes close to our under building parking.

Monday morning I can see Nate has re-sculpted the beach flattening out the storm scarp and the cliff edge created by Irma. He removed a bit of sand (like Irma) so more groyne pillars are exposed, but I expect that sand to return over the next week.

The BBC weatherman forecasts the remnants of Nate will help bring up southerly winds and warmer temperatures for my London friends later this week.


Taken Sunday morning, there is still lots of debris from Hurricane Irma to be picked up.

And here's some more fun dolphin shots sis' took on her recent visit. I got a scope and tripod for my big birthday, so hopefully soon I can take these myself!