Adventure Logan

Nova Scotia Picnic

After 25 years, the annual Nova Scotia picnic was moved from February 13th to March 24th. The weather in February was always cool and some years outright cold. One year we wore our Olympic mittens! So last year they announced a change of date. Over 400 people attended today and it would appear that they have moved the date permanently. It certainly was pleasant to sit in the sun and enjoy meeting lots of folks that we see annually.

Marilyn, Carol, Gerrie and Brenda

Dave and Bert Noyes

Blake and Eunice Caldwell

Graham and Lynda Hodder

Gerrie and Dennis Irwin

Jim Tracy and wife

Cal and Brenda Collins

Pat and Scotty

Cal, Brenda, Dan and Marilyn

Carol with Kathleen Sawler

Dave getting ready to BBQ

March Madness

Hope you are all had a great St.Paddy’s Day no matter where you were. We have been busy as usual with the regular events here in Venice – dominoes, dinners out, Red Hat, bingo, golf  (Dave not me), movie night, and a new thing – trips for frozen yogurt. Beach days are always great and although these scenes may seem familiar, I cannot get enough of the site of our pier and the beach.

This month Liz and I were the hosts of the Red Hat lunch and we chose the Burgundy Cafe on Miami Avenue. Since it is my birthday month, I got to switch the colours to purple hat and red clothes – just another excuse to buy more stuff!

The vegetation in Florida is glorious and the trees so different. This one is at one of the entrances to our park and I love it.

One of our weekly dinner outings included Bryan and Liam   (Earl and Liz’s son and grandson).

Brunch at Peaches with the Munroes and MacIntyres!

For my 66th birthday Mary Daniels sent this great card and then found the perfect top for me that matched it! And yes, everyone stayed well away from my favourite cake – Raspberry Elegance!

Liz and Earl have their second set of family here now – Scott and his wife Julia – along with Emmerson and new baby Ava!

And last but not least another pair of recently created wreaths – our next projects include some work with mosaic tiles so stay tuned. I am not sure when we will tire of the challenges presented on Pinterest but it does not seem likely that it will soon.

More Than Half the Season Is Over

I always hate it when we reach the half way point of our winter as I know just how fast the last half seems to fly. Once we buy our return tickets, it feels like the weeks rush at us and we scramble to do all the things we haven’t yet done. So we return on May 12th and now are busy with making sure that we get it all done! LOL

Valentine’s Day was a busy one – brunch with the Munroes, One Million Rising at the Gallants and then a BBQ at the Munroes.

Thanks Dave for the flowers and chocolates! Love them!

Breakfast at Bob Evans with the Munroes

At the Gallants

At the Gallants

Charles and Dave

Dave volunteers every Wednesday morning at our park. They mulch, and paint and do general clean-up, spruce-up and fix-up things. Two weeks ago he came home with four cut out pieces of wood and said that he was making new stop signs. Sounded good to me until I realized that I would be part of the project. He soon realized that he could only do the red painting and that I might be needed for the word STOP!

Old Stop sign sample

New signs – Dave sprayed the red and I made a stencil, traced it and painted about 5 coats of white on each letter. Seems like a fair division of tasks. In fairness he gave me all the credit.

Dave and I won a door prize at the New York/Pennsylvania dinner at the clubhouse.

We made it back to the beach this week – no red tide and much warmer temperatures.

A beautiful sailing day.

Lots of umbrellas at the beach today.

Happy Valentine’s Day

My dear friend of 44 years, Dorothy McKenzie, called yesterday to see if we were alive – she reminded me that I hadn’t posted in nearly a month.  I assured her we are well and promised a posting – so here goes! I can’t believe we are well into February already. I haven’t done much picture-taking so there is little to share except a few from the beach. Because the weather has been cool and windy, we are not beaching much these days – winter here can be like that and with el Nino in full force things are a little off – and there is red tide which is a killer on the respiratory system. No matter what, the sights, smells and sounds at the beach are what it is all about.

We are into the routine though – Tuesday movies (cheap night $5) followed by a trip to the frozen yogurt shop. The shop offers 10% discount when you show the movie stub so now we are into the habit of going there after the movie. Some weeks it is more appealing than the movie!

Wednesday night is bingo at the clubhouse. Usually we are there with the Corkerys so that is fun. Liz and I bought tubs of bingo chips for us this week at the flea market – first time in my 66 years that happened! We are still old-fashioned here – cardboard cards – no daubers.

Liz, Marilyn and I go out to lunch twice a month with the 2 red hat groups we have joined. It usually gives us a chance to try out a few new restaurants and if we like them well enough we go back with the guys.

Dominoes got off to a slow start but we are into the groove now and usually manage a game once a week. We  have managed one table but if the group grows we will have to set up 2 to accommodate everyone.

Weekly restaurant jaunts are still happening. The group favourite is Applebees but we have also done Red Lobster, Outback, Burgundy Cafe, Althea’s, Olive Garden, Himachi Grill, N’Tinos and the Gold Rush. This week we were at the Outback and the Valentine special was 2 for $40 – bloomin’ onion to share, steak dinner and a cheese cake to share. I am not a big fan of eating the dessert right after the meal – would prefer it later but we managed to wolf it down.

Mid January — Already!

I cannot believe that we are at the midway point in the month already. Where has the time gone? We enjoyed having Florence and Garth here for a month – Florence kept Marilyn and me on track with the nightly trike ride. Since she left we have let that slide, so we need to get back on that soon. After their departure I spent several days packing away Christmas. It took 10 bins to accomplish that – my OCD self-made new labels for all of them. We continue to have Sunday brunch out with the Munroes and dinner out with the gang (who ever is available) once a week. This week we went to Red Lobster and I enjoyed the shrimp.

We did not win the POWERBALL but did try.

The fever was great and the lines for purchasing were long. Here is a pic of the losing ticket!!!

I seem to be on a crafting kick this week. The glue gun was calling to me in a big way. Along with the glue gun, was the urge to redo some of my shell arrangements. So I emptied shell jars and redid some shells, painted and redid a wreath and a welcome sign and started a spring wreath for home.

This square wreath has been used for a couple of years – has been shown here before

when birds began a nest in it – so it needed a remake to take it from this………

To this…….

I bought a brown wood plaque with the letters WELCOME carved out.

So I painted it green and filled the carved out letters with shells.

Close up of the letter W with shells and pearls.

Last night we had another rain event with the accompanying tornado watch. When I went to bed at 3AM,  it was raining and blowing quite hard. During the night it resulted in several tornadoes which killed 2 near Arcadia(mobile home) and damaged condos about 30 kms north near Siesta Key. The reports today of the EF2 tornadoes are frightening and the pictures certainly show the severe danger. Since the el Nino season is mostly to blame, we will dig out the storm radio that we own and use it when the storms are raging through this county. In true Florida fashion, we woke to sunny skies and wind. Dave and I took a drive to the North Jetty where the waves were awesome. We couldn’t park there as they were plowing the sand and debris that had gathered there. I took this pic from the window of the car.

We then headed for Venice Beach and walked out to see the surf.

The beach was closed for swimming and the water was rough.

These birds were huddled close to the sea grass and away from the water.

We then headed for the South Jetty which is in Nokomis. The water by the jetty was a huge whirlpool.

Sand was blown from the beach to the rocks on the jetty and it looked like ice and snow.

The surf pounded and sprayed in all directions.

So I thought we were off to a slow start this year but it seems that the meteorologists think that we will have repeat performances of this all winter. We will have to tighten up the “take cover” plan as the tornado that hit the trailer lifted it off its blocks and threw it across the street.

Happy New Year

We had a great evening with the Munroes and Sanfords – played dominoes and had some laughs. The gals won!!!

Then we piled (all 6 of us) into the Camry and headed to Service Beach which is 2 minutes away from our place. We arrived just before midnight and along with a huge crowd enjoyed the fireworks from Sharkeys, as well as, those from people at our part of the beach.

The Rookery

This evening we headed for the Venice Rookery which we haven’t visited since 2012. It was great to be there again and to get to show the Sanfords the interesting sights. Birds by the hundreds arrived for the night. It is so much fun watching them jostle for a branch and settle down. While you wait, large flocks suddenly appear and swoop around before gently gliding toward that little island. We had forgotten how much we enjoy the sight – we will have to come back again this season for sure.

Christmas Eve and Christmas Day

Well it is hard to get used to very warm weather (80+ all week) but we managed. Christmas Eve we headed to Himachi Grill for Chinese supper and then off to Munroes for the evening.

This morning Daniel and Karen got a great Christmas surprise with the arrival of their son Chris and his girl friend, Milena. So we were blessed with the addition of 2 for Christmas dinner making the total  10. It meant adding a table – no problem – 2 chairs – no problem – 2 place settings – no problem, as well as, some of the fun decorative items that were needed. Since I am known as the “queen of stuff”, I was able to put my hand on a larger tablecloth, placename holders for 10 – different from the set for 8 and another set for 6 – (and the same for napkin rings) so I mentioned to Dave that he should now understand the importance of having more than one of something. LOL

That young turkey (20 pounds) cost $16 and was delicious!

Gathering outside on Christmas Day is a bonus for sure. This picture was taken at 5:45 and it was still close to 80 degrees.

The table set for the gang.

Marilyn, Garth, Florence, Carol, Dave, Karen, Daniel, Milena, Chris and Danny

Concert Night

On Wednesday, Marilyn, Florence and I headed to Venice Theatre to see Sounds of Christmas by the Ditchfield Family Singers. It was a great show with lots of great Christmas music which we were happy to hear and which got us in the seasonal spirit.

The singers include the parents and 3 sons and a daughter – and 3 daughters-in-law. They have lovely voices and the arrangements of the pieces were very interesting. I checked out their website and discovered that the parents were both born in Canada. They all live in the Sarasota area and during the year perform around the state as the family singers, the father and 3 sons also perform and compete as a barbershop quartet and the father performs as a solo act.

The oldest son has four sons who are already part of some of the family performances. This little guy (7 years old) did a great job as did his 13 year old brother.

Merry Christmas

Dave and I would like to wish you all a very Merry Christmas. We feel blessed to have you in our lives and hope that the season is a happy and healthy one for you.