February Fun

Skip and I have been enjoying our holiday in Sarasota. We've done a lot of shopping for food since we have been eating wheat-, sugar-, and grain-free.  We have been doing a lot of reading about the ills of sugar in all its forms - including glucose, fructose, sucrose, lactose, etc. Our weight-loss results have been encouraging.

We explored the Sarasota Farmer's Market on Saturday and stocked up on some favourite things as well as getting a subscription for the local daily paper.

Monday, Lorna and John arrived for a couple of days. Lorna and I ran errands on Tuesday and got a lot of shopping done. I bought my first bathing suit in about 15 years. Yay! I have been so afraid my other one was going to have a blow-out of one of the elastics around the leg. Skip and John golfed until after dark with another guy from the condo complex. Then we went out for Mexican food.

After they left on Wednesday afternoon, we were to meet Andrea and Paula for dinner but there was a torrential downpour scheduled right about that time so we postponed it 'til later in the month.

Yesterday, Sue and David arrived for breakfast. We went birding at a couple of good spots. At the Celery Fields in Sarasota we saw the resident limpkin, some roseate spoonbills, yellow-rumped warblers, glossy ibis and a great egret.

Limpkin

After lunch we went to Oscar Scherer Park south of Sarasota and Osprey to see if we could see the endemic and endangered Florida Scrub Jay. The person at the gate told us where we would be able to see it and sure enough one was exactly where she said it would be even though it was quite windy.

Here are some better pictures I took last year.

Then we went to the Venice Rookery where we saw several types of herons, including great blues on their nests and saw several babies. There were lots of anhingas and at the adjacent trailer park were tons of glossy ibis and black-bellied whistling ducks. We believe that they are being fed by one of the residents of the trailer park.

Black-bellied Whistling Ducks at a great distance

It was a fun day of birding.

Today we all went for a nice walk before bidding goodbye to our guests. Then Skip and I noodled around the condo, and generally enjoyed our Valentine's Day together. I watched 'Philomena' and cast on the second "The Big Four Sock".

I finished the first sock last night.

I didn't bring my sock blockers so I had to make do just laying it flat on the rug.

It has been a busy week but lots of fun. We have a better social life here than we do at home. LOL.

Scooter arrives tomorrow for his 'reading week' and to get away from the unrelenting winter weather back home. The weather is supposed to cooperate for him.