Saturday, January 19, 2013

We awoke to cloudy skies this morning. However, my grandmother, Big Mom, always said if you can see enough blue sky to make a pair of kitten’s breeches it is a sign that the skies will clear and the sun will come out. And so I was encouraged when I saw enough blue in our skies. Sure enough, there was no rain and the sun did shine by the afternoon.

 I love the local strawberries that are in season. I buy them from the local flea market which has a fresh fruit and vegetable section

We need to kill some time while waiting for our good friends, Jim and Barb Hauser, to arrive. They had spent the night in Orlando and promised to bring the clear skies from there with them. After a very brief discussion, Cordell and I decided that we would have a good two hours to geocache.

We saw some interesting areas while looking for caches. One was found in the middle of some split leaf philodendrons. I never had any plants that looked like these, but they sure would be beautiful if they could only live in our climate.

We also saw paper trees (melaleucas) and it is very obvious how they got their name.   

I found the Australian Pines particularly interesting. However, it is not a pine tree at all. In fact, it is not even related to the pines. The Australian Pine appears to have long, soft, gray green needles, but these needles are actually multi-jointed branchlets that I find very attractive. Florida's Australian Pines were introduced to the state more than a century ago to stabilize shorelines and to provide windbreaks and shade. These trees and the paper trees are invasive species that are crowding out the native plants all over Florida.

Jim and Barb arrived and the four of us are looking forward to spending a week together. The first order of business was to get all the computers and phones hooked into the WiFi. Between us we have 3 laptops, 2 iPads and 4 telephones!

After a brief rest, we prepared dinner which was enjoyed with a nice bottle of wine. Jim brought his guitar and we sang one of our favorite songs. We tried to come up with a name to call our group and I couldn't get the others to agree to "The Florida Foggies".

Later, the guys watched basketball on TV while the girls were involved in other important activities. We have been making bets as to who will be the first one to fall asleep before going to bed. All I know is that I am still awake at 9:00 p.m.