Smells of summer

Enjoying lots of Caprese salads this summer with our delicious fresh basil plant.... Nothing like the fragrance of fresh, organic basil!

Went on a bike ride at the beach today, and I was watching all the people at family or group picnics. It was heartwarming in this day and age to see so many children and adults happy to be spending time together outdoors. It reminded me of when I was a teenager living in Fort Walton Beach, Florida, and my dad would announce that we were all going to the beach. My mom would make burgers or buy chicken for him to grill, and we’d take coolers of food and beverages to one of those public picnic shelters on the beach in Destin. We’d spend the whole day body surfing, building sand castles, and eating the delicious food my dad cooked. He was in his element at the grill and at the beach. And when my sister Lynda would come down with her family from Montgomery, it was even better. The more the merrier! What a simple, blissful time that was. 

I miss my dad. He would be 95 if he were still alive. I know that’s too old to be grilling burgers at the beach, but I miss him anyway. And I miss those happy days of childhood. As one of his favorite entertainers used to say, “Thanks for the memories!"

Save the honeybees!

We had a beehive growing under the fill hatch of our in-ground propane tank. Marcus didn't want the gas company to disturb the hive when they come for the next fill-up, so he called a master beekeeper who came by to check out the hive. She said the queen was very pretty and left this "mobile home" sprayed inside with sugar water. Two days later the queen and more than 95% of her workers had transferred over to their new home and were well on their way to building a new honeycomb. The beekeeper collected the box and transported them to a new, permanent location in the country. So happy to have helped successfully relocate these honeybees. So many are of them are dying off now.

It may have been tiny, but it was juicy and delicious - and homegrown! We grew it in the landscaped bed next to the house. So easy to do in the subtropics!

Save our lagoon!

So glad to find two queen conches while snorkeling this weekend in the Indian River Lagoon. It's a sign of good health! Our poor lagoon. It's healthy now, but we're just entering the rainy season. When there's too much water in Lake Okeechobee, they'll start dumping it into the Caloosahatchee (on the west) and St. Lucie (on the east) rivers. The Lake O water is fresh water, which lowers the salinity of the IRL, the most biodiverse estuary in North America, and is not hospitable to local wildlife. And it's also polluted. It's wonderful to see healthy queen conches, but they won't be here for long if they start dumping out of Lake O. We want the Lake O waters to flow south out of the lake to be filtered through the Everglades again, like they originally did. And we also want agricultural land north of the lake to stop polluting the lake waters. It's not too much to ask. It's the way nature designed it.

Playin' hooky!

It's just too gorgeous a day to be sitting inside editing my next book. We picked up trash on our adopted road today (that in itself was a good reason to be outdoors!), ran some errands, and ended up on Manatee Pocket for a late lunch. Could have sat here for ever!

Birthdays at the beach

I knew there was a reason I retired in Florida. Love the beach in December! We went to Blowing Rocks Nature Reserve in Hobe Sound to watch the wild surf pound against the coquina, then to Sandsprit Park in Port Salerno to look for dolphins. Found them playing just outside Manatee Pocket! On the way home we stopped by our secret manatee-watching spot to see if there were any about. We saw around a dozen feeding just below the surface of the water. That's a manatee nose you see poking out of the water in the last photo!