3/5/19 Tuesday

So the rain last night was just a spritz.  It never developed further.  After dinner we played hand and foot.  Cathie and I were beating the pants off the guys and we could have gone out on the second round and trounced them, but we felt sorry that neither had gotten into his foot so we let them play a bit more.  That was a huge mistake as they beat us that round and the next two to boot!  Tonight, if we play, there will be no more nice guy (or girl)!

It was cloudy this morning so we went across to Fort Myers to visited the Edison and Ford Winter Estates.  We used the audio players to take the tour at our own pace and had a great time wandering through the gardens, workshops and homes.  The homes are on the Caloosahatchee River just north of Fort Myers.  Edison bought the land for his property in 1885 and sketched the design of the houses and workshops that an architect followed.  Thomas and his second wife Mina moved into the house in 1886.  The family and later the widow Mina enjoyed the estate until 1947 when she donated the property to the city for $1.  Henry Ford purchased the house next door in 1915.  One interesting fact that I didn't know is that Ford worked for Edison and then later they became good friends.  We spent all morning there and came back to Cape Coral for lunch.  The sun brightened up later this afternoon and it became more pleasant.  When we were touring the houses, it was very cloudy and windy and, dare I say it, cold.  I know, 63 and breezy would feel delightful for a winter day in Mystic, but it did feel quite cold to us in our tees and shorts!  We will go out to dinner tonight - haven't decided on a place yet and the forecast is calling for 60's tomorrow so we may venture down to Ding Darling for some more water bird watching.

So the pics today are of : bougainvillea, an early Ford truck, orchid, pond lilies in the moon garden, a rubber tree (Ford, Edison, and Firestone tried to find a local source of rubber during World War I), a Mercury motor mailbox in the neighborhood, Edison's study, a prize rose from Mrs. Fords garden, a dolphin mailbox in the neighborhood, Russ, Cathie, and Dave next to the Mina Edison statue, a pitcher plant (they are carnivorous), a viceroy butterfly and a hibiscus blossom.

3/4/19 Monday

We had a lovely dinner last night at Fish Tale Grill.  Russ and I had stuffed codfish, Dave had the seafood platter, and Cathie had blackened mahi-mahi.  We had plenty of leftovers for our dinner tonight.  We played two rounds of pinocle last night - the girls won the first round and the boys the second.

We got up very early this morning so as to beat the morning commuter traffic over the bridge.  It was 76 degrees at 5:30 AM.  We got to Audubon's Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary about 7:30 which was a perfect time to see the birds and some mammals.  Our list consists of painted bunting, swallow-tailed kite, red-shouldered hawk, pileated woodpecker, red-bellied woodpecker, Carolina wren, catbird, little blue heron, white-eyed vireo, ruby-throated hummingbird, cardinal, anhinga, Florida stumper (I thought I spotted a green heron, but upon closer inspection, it was a stump in the water), LBBs (little brown birds),pig frog, otters, alligators, and raccoons.  The Corkscrew is huge - 17 square miles and has the oldest Bald Cypress forest in North America.  There were very few wading birds today as the water level in the swamp is quite high from all of the accumulated rain they have had in the area recently.  The highlights for me were the painted bunting, which I had never seen before, baby alligators sunning on a log, and a pair of otters frolicking on a closed off area of the boardwalk.  We walked for about 4 1/2 hours and it was great!

We drove back to Cape Coral and had a late lunch.  Russ and Cathie went out for a bit to check out the shopping in the area and have just come back.  It clouded up this afternoon and it has just begun to rain.  I wouldn't be surprised if we had a thunderstorm tonight.

The photos today are of the painted bunting, a flowering bromeliad, alligator (very close to the boardwalk), flowering arrowroot, baby gators sunning on a log, raccoon (despite the rangers having just put up slippery pipes to prevent him from getting to the bird feeder, he was caught with handfuls of it - raccoon 9, rangers 0. white-eyed vireo, pileated woodpecker, otter, pig frog (they make a very loud noise that sounds like a pig grunting, and an unknown marsh plant.

3/3/19 Sunday

Russ and Cathie arrived around 8:30 last night - tired of traveling and very hungry.  They had pizza and we chatted for a bit before all heading off to bed.

We had a change of plans this morning.  Cathie had seen an ad for a craft show in Fort Myers and since today was the last day, we decided to go.  It was quite a bit smaller than we expected, but had a nice time walking around.  We all had smoothies (absolutely wonderful) and then decided to take them to the Six Mile Cypress Slough Preserve.  We had a great walk through and saw some of our favorites from the other day along with some new things.

The photos above are of a black crowned night heron, a gator (we saw two today), a flowering air plant, a spiny backed soft shelled turtle, a cardinal, a great blue heron, a cottonmouth snake, a cormorant, an unknown marsh plant, and an iris.

I just came back from showing the burrowing owls to Cathie.  Russ had seen some on his morning run.  We will go out for seafood a bit later.  Right now we are enjoying the breeze on the back patio.

3/2/19 Saturday

We had a pretty lazy day today.  We did laundry and then went downtown to the farmer's market.  I bought some salad fixings, strawberries, fresh guacamole, a loaf of bread and a watermelon.  Everything looked so good!  We came home and cleaned up a bit.  We sat outside on the patio for a while talking with our neighbors.  My brother, Russ, and his wife Cathie are flying in tonight so we will spend the next week with them.  We will go out later and get pizza and a grinder for Dave so they can have reheated pizza when they finally arrive.  Tomorrow will probably be spent on the beach so Russ can get his quota of vitamin D.  It has been very cold in Vermont the last couple of weeks.  So here are some tomatoes, strawberries, and a huge bunch of radishes from the market this morning.

3/1/19 Friday

We took a drive into Fort Myers this morning and had a lovely time walking in the Six Mile Cypress Slough (pronounced sloo and rhymes with stew) Preserve.  We got some good shots, but also missed a few: a cottonmouth and a pileated woodpecker who just wouldn't stay still for the camera.  The walking was very easy as it was on a boardwalk.  There was one part that we couldn't go on as they had it blocked off from visitors - the barred owls are nesting and they didn't want them disturbed by visitors.  We came back for lunch and a nap and then went out to dinner at Ceno Grill, a Greek/Italian restaurant.  Dave had steak and garlic mashed while I had penne pasta in a light marinara sauce with scallops and shrimp.  We will try to find the farmer's market tomorrow - I am looking for some fresh strawberries.

The photos (from top to bottom): a yellow eared slider turtle, black racer snake swimming, black crowned heron, cypress trees, closeup of the slider, gator, iris, cormorants on a raft, anole with a missing part of his tail, egret, and a small unknown song bird.

2/28/19 pics

Took a long walk around the neighborhood and found a few more nesting sites.  Here are a couple of my feathered friends. It was cool to see the one standing at the edge of his hole - he has quite long legs for his body.  It is amazing how many sites there are in just this neighborhood.