Ta Da! What to do [in Feb.] when . . .

Ta-Da!  What to do when . . . celebration of your friends' birthdays gets moved up a month just before you are to hop on a plane?  Well, since I 'stumped' my Quirky friends after making a leaf bowl for a Secret Santa gift, I had the courage to get sewing again.  I was inspired to make beverage totes from Needle and Spatula's website (see below).

Of course mini me being mini me, once I read the comments on Needle and Spatula's website, I had a few modifications to make. And then I decided to further enhance the beverage tote with a square bottom avoiding the difficulties of sewing in the extra piece of round fabric. Voila is all I can say - I am pleased with the result!

The pattern is here and if you want my simplified version, just drop me a line in the comments at the end of this blog.

So then I got inspired to make up some tote bag charms to 'my own design.' Results below all with a seaside theme for a bit of fun. Hope they bring a smile to the recipients!

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Jumping ahead in the story: I should mention that the above items were packed in my suitcase for friends in the UK - and then lost by BA for 91/2 days!  Thought I had lost them for good, but fortunately all was well in the end. . . unrelated to the BA saga, the birthday celebrations were delayed/moved back to April, so the delay in this blog post.
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Having finished that off with time to spare before the plane and sharing pics with my sis, she wanted a beer beverage cover.  So out came the crochet hook and some spare bits of yarn . . . sis says it does keep the beer cool.




Sidenote completing the Birthday tale: Arriving in the UK, attention turned to hand quilting a cushion cover for a Quirky big 0 birthday. Brought it back to the beach to finish; VERY glad to report the US and UK mail delivered this one on time!!

Mid February it was time to pack up the sewing machine and do a bit of travelling.




First off to Gainsville, FL for the 20th Annual Sea Turtle Permit Holders Conference (yes a mouthful) in preparation for the start of the season this April.

Gulf water temperatures are warmer than usual at 70 F (21 C) end of February and lots of people out swimming - so won't be long now till the mama turtles come ashore.

But in the meantime, here's keeping the seaside theme with my new copper and enamel Bovano sculpture which now graces my living room wall - a Christmas gift and something I have had my eye on for almost 3 years.

Before we are off to the UK, must check out the dolphins and see several beautiful sunsets.








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Next crafts: a trial in basket weaving (seriously!) and a C2C lap quilt for mini me (yes, making it in the heat of 32+C or over 90F heat of Florida). And may even a new small door quilt or two for Spring and Summer.

And soon those mama sea turtles will be arriving on our beaches!

Never Dull: Oyster Dome Construction

Finished concrete oyster domes

Did you know that West Coast oysters are sweeter than East Coast oysters in the USA?  But Tampa Bay oysters filtering our waters are not for eating as they have too many pollutants! An adult oyster can filter up to 50 gallons of water per day removing algae, including types that cause red tide, and also nitrogen pollutants. Fun facts to know and tell when building oyster domes on a Thursday morning at Tampa Bay Watch.

Here's how to build a dome or 'reef ball' with a fiberglass mold:

1. build your mold from 3 pieces and hammer in the bolts/wedge pins; secure to the base ensuring the two top holes for the metal rod line up
2. spread a little concrete dust around the inside bottom to ensure a seal and then place in 3 balloons to form holes, and insert the buoy/bladder in the center. 
3. Run metal rod through two holes and top of buoy
4. Inflate buoy/bladder and seal inflation point with plug
5. Spray a sugar water mixture (1 pound sugar to 1 US gallon of water) inside to act as a non-toxic lubricant to keep concrete from sticking to the fiberglass mold
6. Mix concrete and pour into the mold, vibrating mold with a rubber mallet as you go to ensure no air bubbles
7. Spray with water sparingly to ensure access to the bladder and removing any spilled concrete from the metal rod and the outside of the mold
8. Let dry for several days
9. Using hammer, bang out the metal rod and concrete at top of mold to release the buoy/bladder
10. Remove bladder; bang out the wedge pins and remove mold pieces
11. Hammer out ballons, stack concrete mold
12. Tidy up areas of any concrete dust/pieces and clean off any excess concrete from the mold
13. Place the domes in water between high and low tide, creating habitat for oysters

oyster domes at work
source: Tampa Bay Watch

This morning we made 19 oyster domes and set them out to dry.  We freed another 20 or so made Tuesday so we could re-use the molds to make our 19.  Great fun (and lots of dust) was had by all!

Tuesday night eating dinner,reflecting on the antics in our local "City" politics (if <5,000 people can be a city - without a cathedral!), and watching the Gulf of Mexico with the surf up, what did we see . . . but a sailboat beached on our offshore sand bar.

The boat apparently ran aground and had to be rescued by a small tug that circled it several times before getting it adrift and towing it back to John's Pass.

from Janis and Larry Andersen travel blog

Our sandbar apparently also occasionally "traps" manatees along the shoreline and then they have to wait for high tide to get back out to sea.

cormorant on left; dog with woman on right

The next thing we saw was a small dog chasing a cormorant - not once, but twice and then three times - and clearly the cormorant was injured and could not fly.This says it all about unleashed dogs (or owners!) on the beach . . . and I like dogs! We called for professional help, but none seemed to arrive and the cormorant had disappeared by morning :-(

Now for a less demanding and cleaner evening of sewing & stuffing pillows for the kids at All Children's Hospital.  The poly-fil stuffing has been growing steadily ever since I released it from the box in which it came - I think it is now double the size it was in the box! Hubby finds this a bit spooky!

Sights of Cross Bay Ferry

departing St Petersburg

Didn't know St Petersburg - Tampa had a ferry? Heard about those long bay bridge crossings? Well this 'season' (meaning the 'winter' months) a bay crossing trial was started using a boat from Boston/Providence Town, Massachusetts.

It took 3 days to sail down the intercostal waterway and dock in St Petersburg. Daily crossings run 50 minutes for $10 round trip. These are very popular as alternative transport to sporting events on both sides of the bay! The trial ends this month.

So last Friday hubby and I decided to support the venture and try it out. The one below, not the Schooner to the right which is also docked in St Petersburg.

This is the CrossFerry carrying circa 150

War 1812 Square Topsail Schooner

Once we arrived in Tampa - slightly windblown from the upper deck, but in great spirits on a fine day - we explored the newly opened RiverWalk, complete with Convention Center, several museums and of course eating establishments along the way.  Yes, the 'sail' covering pictured below is because even in April it is hot in the sunshine (89 F on Friday or 31.7 C).

Believe it or not, there is a little history in Tampa - a few early 20th century buildings and infrastructure from the railroad. On the left is what was an old railroad hotel (1891) from Henry Plant, now a museum and part of the University of Tampa.















This Kress building looks fancy for a 'five and dime' but sadly now, although on the register of historic places and extending straight through from one block to the next, is vacant.

1929 Kress & Co Building ('five and dime' dept store)

Have to say whilst this part of town was fun to explore, we didn't find much else of interest. Several tall bank buildings, a few ugly government buildings and an almost deserted pedestrianized walkway through what once must have been the center of downtown rounded out our tour of Tampa proper. Tampa is a city of 350,000, St Petersburg 250,000 and Clearwater 110,000, for a total  Tampa Bay AREA of 3 million. Having explored Tampa by bus on another trip (27 June 2015 blog) and visited Ybor City before, we called it a day and returned to our ferry for the trip home. There was partying in our boat wake, but not by dolphins, rather jet skiers!

It is always great to be out on the water in the sunshine!

Riding the [Bumpy] Rails - Yes in the US!

Friend TG has asked about our Amtrack experience on the Silver Star overnight travelling through the Southeast states, so here goes. It was a 14 hour journey (plus connecting train of 3 hours), the cars were pretty comfortable if old, checked baggage was transferred without incident and the staff pleasant. The baggage was a big deal for mini me travelling inside the bag - as she had been 'mislaid' for 9.5 days on her recent overseas journey!!

There were a few glitches in what I would call a good service: no proper food --only vending machines -- and a limited menu microwaved in cardboard boxes (with many items permanently labelled 'sold out'). Our attendant call button didn't work, defeating much of the value of having an 'on call' service in our sleeper compartment.  Compartment trash bin was full and the ice water faucet didn't work. Oh, and the train was late with a constantly changing arrival time, making it impossible for our kind neighbour to know when to arrive at the station to pick us up.

more legroom than an aircraft!

However, none of this detracted from our experience and it beat driving when we were very tired. In case you are wondering, there is an auto train which runs on the East Coast between Washington DC and Orlando, but there are no 'auto' stops in between - which is what we needed.

So we climbed onto our slightly delayed train just before 10 pm on a Saturday night and into our sleeper compartment. In the US, freight has priority over passenger trains - a consumer society without doubt!

We settled in rapidly and asked the attendant to make up our bunks for a good night's rest.  Hubby found the rickety rails a bit disturbing, but I just imagined I was on the upper deck of a 747 flying between London and South Africa pretending I felt air turbulence - a familiar and oddly soothing feeling.

this is all space there is.

The upper bunk has a 'harness' to make sure you don't fall out - maybe I am a skeptic, but hey, it didn't look too reassuring and fortunately two can fit on the bottom bunk - so hubby was saved from a potential injury!

Awaking after 8 am, first we had to navigate the shower - let's just say it made TG's Casita camper trailer's shower look luxurious!

Then off to the 'dining car' for breakfast - well at least there was free hot coffee on offer from our attendant.

We'd booked too late for the cheaper 'roomettes' which have a toilet and sink, but no shower.  You need to be best buddies with your roomette companion I think . . . spot the toilet location; the sink pulls down from above the toilet.

roomette

We returned home to find dinner in our fridge left for us by our thoughtful friend DB. Back on dry land or I guess you would say 'off the rails' we had a day trip to Holmes Beach on Anna Maria Island just south of us - highly recommended - to visit with cousins.  Anna Maria Island is the one with lights we can see from our home at night, so great fun to actually be there. It is definitely a beach community as you can see from this picture - just imagine this fish head has a twin who is stuck up on the side of a building at second floor level.

He's just too ugly for a larger photo - LOL!








We saw great wildlife, including this Anhinga drying his wings on a sinking wooden sailing ship, and ate great seafood.





Below, another new sight from our window on the beach . . . what a great idea to dig a table in the sand!