The Sweet Smell of Orange Blossum - heavenly.  They bottle it, and it's close, but ... nothing beats being in the orange groves!

Florida has lost many of its groves, but oranges are still grown in central Florida near Lake Wales in sandy soil. Now citrus greening, a bacterial infection caused by insects, is apparently running rampant—and cannot be stopped; hence this is the worst production year since the 1940s.  

Lemons and Limes are grown further south.

We were thus very gratified to see new trees recently planted!

This tree has both blossoms and oranges - look closely

and yes, I told you they try to bottle it --                                                                          along the way we also saw plenty of cattle as Florida is  cracker country -- and somewhat harmful phosphate mining - used in fertilizer and food preservatives among other things. The mines are in west central Florida just east of Tampa and Sarasota in an area known as bone valley - also good for fossil hunting they say. These big watery pits were cleverly hidden behind high spoil berms so we couldn't see much of the  ugly destruction.

There were also strawberries in the fields -- Plant City just outside Tampa is known for strawberries.

and back home seen on the beach - a Lightning Whelk egg case, one of the biggest I 've seen

This is the edible snail that lays the above egg case

Some guys like thir new e-foil skimming on water - here's it upside down on the beach

and two microlights flying into the sunset; I sure wish my camera really caught the sunset--

Caged and Lethargic

Yup, this caged tiger on the beach is me!  Exactly how I am feeling with Omicron and the mask controversary swirling around me! At least I was enjoying some cooler weather in February with a 5 day forecast of ‘shots of cold air’ and a HARD freeze watch - at least cool for our subtropical climate! 

Now with Russian/Ukraine war I feel very lethargic, but not exactly apathetic!

But nature is good for us ... so seen around the beach ....

What's this you ask?   Nightime Beach Boules of course!

and a few projects ...

My reaction to the world and some recent jokes ... I love this graphic!