Hawk-eye I.D.

I have a hard time identifying different hawks. They can be so variable in coloring and marking. I think that this one is a red-shouldered hawk that was in our tree. We hear their distinctive call and often see them around our neighborhood. This one was silent, before and after it flew away.

What an attractive bird!

Mailbox Monday: ChooChoo

Clark's

For a couple of years, we have been hearing about a place called, "Clark's." So this summer, we jumped at the chance to go with our sons, daughter-in-law and grandson.

It was everything described ---and more! It is, in fact, indescribable. So here are the pictures to speak for themselves.

The sink in the ladies' room.

This guy was alive, but most everything else had spent some time with a taxidermist.

This is a mere fraction of what is in there. Pretty amazing. It sits right on a tributary to the St. John's River. Oh, yeah, and the food was good---and reasonable.

One Mississippi, Two Mississippi...

Each summer, we enjoy seeing and hearing the Mississippi Kites as they nest in our neighborhood. So when we saw kites hanging around the garden plot, we were glad to see them. Their coloring is striking, in a subtle kind of way, if that makes any sense. I took these shots from across a field, so they are not sharp but definitely the best I have to date of these birds.

They appear to glide so effortlessly; such graceful birds they are. We hear the young kites high in trees, begging for feeding with a clear, "Feed me! Feed me!" We welcome them to the destructive insects that they consume, especially grasshoppers. It is the cicadas that can be heard for quite a distance complaining as they are carried off in a beak.

Mailbox Monday: Bejeweled

Thank You to All Our Fans!

Not our readers---our fans! We really appreciate the breeze of our ceiling fans. The white one in the living room had never been  my favorite. I get the idea that the builder was trying to have it blend into the white ceiling. But really? Can a fan blend into a ceiling? So when this one died, save the light, I spent many hours shopping for a replacement. We have a lot of oak in the room and I wanted a lighter wood blade than most have. 

We really missed having a working fan but we eventually settled on this one. B put it up with no little effort as every part of it is bigger than the old one.

Thank you! Thank you very much! We love all of our fans!

Gators on the Move

On a recent trip to St. Marks, we spotted a large alligator swimming in a narrow pool.

Then we saw a second in its wake. As we watched, the first one stopped and the second one closed in the gap.

Then they both stopped.....

Before continuing on their way.

A little farther down the road, we saw this baby.

What a cutie!