Springtime in Paradise

Hi Everyone -

I hope you are all doing well and that things are starting to warm up in the burgh. It's been really nice here except for a couple weeks ago when we woke up to our phones giving us a tornado warning at 6:30 am. We took the dogs and hid out in the laundry room for a bit, but all was good. Still, no one likes to see the radar look like this:

A tornado did touch down a couple miles from us, but fortunately landed in a ball field, and didn't do too much damage except for knocking over some fences.

Some other important updates from the past few weeks. The most important one is that I finally got a pic of the bald eagle that has been taunting me all over Safety Harbor. Glenn and I were driving the dogs back from a walk, and we went past the tower where I had seen what I thought were adolescent bald eagles in a giant nest. As we drove past, I saw the distinctive white head sticking out of the nest.

We pulled over to get a picture only to discover that my camera's batteries were charging at home. Argh! So we drove the dogs home, got the batteries, and went back. Sure enough, our friend was nice enough to stay put.

Boom! #eaglequest2016 comes to a successful conclusion!

We also went fishing a couple weeks ago underneath the Dunedin causeway. It was a perfectly gorgeous day, but the fish were not hungry.

I took this shot of a guy paddleboarding with his dog.

And this one of Glenn being watched by a hungry egret.

Fortunately, right before we gave up, Glenn caught a nice ladyfish.

Last weekend, we went to Caddie's on the Beach in Treasure Island for a mediocre dinner. But it was a nice sunny day, we listened to a band for a while and took a walk on the beach afterwards.

Yeah, you are right. My hair is a little blonder...

Back at the homestead, everything was pretty much the usual. Deuce was being bad.

What?!

Glenn was traveling to Relays in Naples and Ft. Meyers (although the rental car company has upgraded him, much to his joy).

Yep, that's a 2016 Camaro.

And the orchids continued to love Florida.

This is our newest. When Glenn bought it for me, it had no blooms on it.

Today we went to our favorite park for a walk--without the dogs--and took some pictures. Gorgeous day here.

This was a big mama.

She's probably about 6 - 7 feet long. A woman there told us there were about 7 baby gators nearby, but we didn't see them.

This is a pond, not a meadow. Totally covered in lilypads and purple flowers.

Same pond.

Anyway, so that's about it for today - a beautiful day here in Florida. Hope you are all doing well. Later, gators!