Sharonsknitthings

A beautiful Saturday here in Fla---no wind, no clouds and 75 degrees. Really an ideal day for whatever. The fishing was less than outstanding this am, even though we got to the dock plenty early. It was a full moon last night, so that seems to kill the fishing for a couple of days. We'll try again this evening just for something to do. Friends Ed and Duffi stopped by for a visit and it was pleasant to sit on the dock and watch the birds and boats go by. No cows today. We wandered home and then walked into Lorida as I needed to mail a postcard, and then we stopped at the produce stand and got some fresh peppers, cukes and tomatoes. I got the most beautiful strawberries yesterday and they are almost gone. The gal gets fruits and veggies in daily from Plant City, which might supply your grocery store too. I know when we shopped at the flea market in Big Pine in the Keys, the vendors were mostly from Plant City. John wanted me to take a few pix of our digs and post them so you all could see where we live. He just loves this place. I like it, but I don''t love it like he does. LOL If you click on the pix, you will get a larger view and then just click the back arrow. If you click on the picture that shows the back of our house, you can barely see the fence. That's how close the pasture is and often at night we can hear the cows crashing around back there in the undergrowth. Bizarre!!!

More fishing today!!! John went with Ed in the boat, so I dropped him off at 6:30 and then went over to the park. Pretty dark at that time of the morning but there are a couple of lights, and a good one at the end where I was fishing. I had some luck and caught 4 nice specks---the biggest was a tad over 12 inches. I did catch one lone bluegill and a couple of small bass about 10 inches. Today when John went to clean the fish there were *two* storks. Geez!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I also had another first today. I fished with the cows. Really!!! I heard a great deal of splashing around, looked over my shoulder and there they were. They just waded right in and started eating. Maybe lily pads are nutritious are at least tasty. I also took pictures of all the boats that were near. Everyone fishes right *in* the pads as that's where the specks live. John just got back from cleaning the fish an we have enough for dinner. AGAIN!!! I might need a McDonald's fix by the end of the week. So with no further chatter, here are the pix of the day.

So, we're all settled in. John is doing laundry and we are grateful for the use of a washer/dryer--it's a nice perk. We'll hang our clothes on the line though since it's cheaper for them.

We fished this morning or rather I did. John wandered over to the county park after I'd been there awhile and had caught a few fish. The bite stopped pretty abruptly though at 8:30. It's sunny and calm today with a high of 80 degrees forecast so the fish don't bite for long. We ate the fish for lunch. very yummy!!! When John was cleaning the fish in the back shed, he looked up and there was a stork waiting for a handout. Now we are used to herons and egrets begging but this is our first stork. Apparently he is a long time resident and has been begging fish for quite a while. He was only about 3 feet away. I tried taking pictures of him which was not easy since he was very suspicious of me. The best one is out of focus but I'll put it up anyway. On the way into the house I heard quite the racket, looked up and there was a pielated woodpecker. Big birds!!!! We also have really big hoot owls that like to chatter in the middle of the night. And did I mention that we are surrounded on 3 sides with 500 or so cows?? Also very noisy when the bulls are sorting out territory. Also, the flowers around here are lovely so I included a hibiscus too. I hope to get some fish pictures soon. Also there are scads of osprey, so I'll look for photo ops for them also.

We're here!!!! We made it to Sebring Fl with no problems other than a couple of traffic backups near Chattanooga and Atlanta. Guess it was a heavy travel day. Our digs are small but fine. We can survive just fine for a month and really we are outside much of the day so small quarters are not really a problem. John fished this am and I wandered around this small park finding out about internet access and fishing. As for internet, looks like I'll have to go into town and talk to the
at&t people and get a laptop connect card. So, I'll be hooked up wherever, even out in the lake fishing if I want. Expensive but I will use this at home too and cancel phone and dsl. We hardly use our home phone anyway and that's one way to end calls from telemarketers. The monthly price for the connect card will be about the same as phone+dsl. As for fishing there is a canal that has fish----specs, bluegills and bass, so even if John is fishing with Ed and I am carless, I can still fish. Of course I can get up early and drive John over to Ed's first thing in the am too if I want of need the car. Might do that Monday when I go in for the connect card. Meantime its sunny and 75 so I probably should get out of this car(I'm scooping wireless from Ed+Duffy's neighbor) and do something in the sunshine. I'll find the camera and take some pix tomorrow.