Gloomy and Good

It was a gloomy, breezy, drizzly weekend, and quite consistently cold for Florida. It actually looked like snow a couple of times, even though that was impossible.

I understand it's nothing for my northern friends to cope with a high of 53 degrees under cloudy skies -- but we Floridians are (as my mom would say, with disapproval) s-p-o-i-l-e-d by regularly warm temperatures under sunny skies.

This is totally true:

Of course, it was 80 just a few days ago, so we haven't had a chance to harden off.

I took advantage of a lazy Sunday to get some things done around the house (inside, of course) but then I was a bit stir crazy so I decided to drive out to the local you-pick farm for the season's first orange juice. Fresh, local orange juice is one of the great pleasures of winter, and today seemed like the perfect day for it.

The growing season is backwards here, so the farm's crops are gearing up. I picked some green beans and cut the world's most beautiful head of leaf lettuce. There was kale, and lots of sage and thyme, and flowers for cutting, but I saved those for another day. Everything smelled wonderful and green, and the chill was invigorating.

The farmer seemed happy to see me, although he said he'd had lots of customers -- rather unexpectedly, given the weather.

Five beautiful sandhill cranes were supervising the operation from a grassy spot near the tomato house.

Next time I'll take pictures!   

Happy Solstice

Turning the wheel of the year . . . .

Meanwhile

Nature continues on her lovely course. We've had our chilliest nights so far this winter recently: 39 degrees for the low with a frost warning, which is quite cold for us, and gives us no time to "harden off" because it was 78 a few days before and will be 78 again soon--maybe even today. All that up and down gives us no time to gain our footing before it changes again.

And Kayak Guy chose this cold snap to be out camping! He will need a hot drink and a warm nap (and a shower) when he returns.

Meanwhile, I stayed home, successfully mediating a spat between my computer and my printer. At last, I can print again.

Meanwhile, the azaleas.

Going/Not Going

I was supposed to be in Gatlinburg this week. Somehow Kayak Guy and I have made a habit of traveling in December. No doubt this habit is reinforced by busy-ness, procrastination, and frequent disregard for the deadline to use timeshare points before the end of the year.

Anyway, we had a few days of flip-flopping because of the terrible fires in Gatlinburg last week. It was hard to believe the magnitude: 14 dead, more than 100 injured, something like 14,000 displaced, and about 1,700 buildings destroyed. Then it was hard to accept that driving into the aftermath wasn't a good idea. We were thoroughly looking forward to some winter hiking and holiday festivities downtown (not to mention the aquarium!).

While we were trying to decide, it was particularly concerning that most of the touristy websites and the information we received from our resort said absolutely nothing about the fact a disaster was taking place. Even the lively person we spoke to assured us that the resort was open and the surrounding area wasn't affected by the fire, although they had experienced some wind damage from the 75+ m.p.h. winds that came through.

It was decidedly weird to receive cheery "we're looking forward to your visit" e-mails when the pictures we were seeing were of buildings consumed by flames and people having just enough time to jump into their cars and drive down a burning mountainside to safety. Or, sad to say, not having enough time to do that.

The view from the resort, via the Integrity Clubhouse Facebook page

In the end we decided that even if the resort was undamaged, it felt selfish and wrong to drive into the recovery effort in search of a good vacation. 

We'll go back early next year to support the area with our tourist dollars. Meanwhile, Ripley's Aquarium of the Smokies asks for letters of support while they remain closed; I'm happy to let them know I'll see the sharks and penguins and poison dart frogs another time, and to make a donation to help the community recover. Being disappointed about a vacation is nothing compared with what they're going through. 

Winter in Florida

No reason to complain.

These sandhill cranes are still strolling around, large as life. In this case that's about 3 feet tall.

My geranium is taking advantage of the nice weather to bloom like crazy.

And it is strawberry season!  This morning my favorite dessert of strawberries dipped in sour cream and brown sugar morphed into my favorite breakfast of strawberries, Greek yogurt, and brown sugar.

Consolation

I've been leaving work later lately, and even though the days are getting longer as we turn toward spring, it's sometimes nearly dark when I head home. Not that I'm complaining.

Peas Pose

When I lived in New Hampshire, one of the surest signs of spring (besides Truck Day) was people asking each other, "Got your peas in yet?" Peas like cold weather, so they are the first thing you can plant. There was apparently some sort of competition about planting them earlier than everyone else (so you could be the first gardener to eat them) without planting too early and losing them to a late snow. Considering the biggest snowstorm I ever saw happened on Easter Sunday one year, that calculation is not easy to make.

Anyway, in the garden I frequent, no such problem. People planted their peas quite recently, in December, and I used their lovely blossoms as a chance to practice with my new camera. As you can see, it was trial and error.

Oops.

Ah, that's better.

Oops. Overconfident.

Did I Mention It's Been Cold Here?

The proof positive was right there on my windshield.

Our winter weather is nothing like what's happening further north, but even so, I'm glad I still have my ice scraper from my days in New Hampshire. I wonder if I was the only Floridian who had one on hand the other morning, when it got so chilly?

Hot Meal on a Cold Night

Nothing better than chili when it's chilly. I was tempted to try a new recipe this time, but reverted to the old standby. For variety I used half ground beef and half ground pork, 3 different kinds of beans, and beer instead of water when it came time to add extra liquid (hence the foam).

This is my favorite stage: I love seeing the different layers of ingredients, before everything is mixed together.

In my world, you can't have too much cumin.

Too bad C.S. doesn't like beans in his chili (yet another example of how our culinary tastes diverge wildly and widely). I don't understand that at all. Without the beans, isn't it just hamburger soup?

Despite my lack of comprehension, I have promised to make him a non-bean version next time he visits.

Whenever my mom served chili, my dad used to trot out a lame old pun: "Chili today and hot tamale [tomorrow]," he'd say. It's not a great pun, but hey, it's a family tradition.

A sprinkle of Mexican four-cheese blend, some green onions, and life is good.

Wow, Canada!

Someone missed a great opportunity to distinguish themselves at their workplace this weekend. Someone's workplace is multinational, containing among the many Americans and Latin Americans, a surprisingly large (and this week, particularly vocal) number of Canadians. Naturally, there was some trash talk back and forth about the men's hockey face-off for the gold medal between the U.S. and Canada. Even in Florida, hockey can be serious business.

The discussion led to a proposal for a wager that could have been a classic. If the U.S. won, the Canadian contingent would have had to sing the "Star Spangled Banner" in front of everyone. And if Canada won, a Cuban-born American and another American (the someone in this story) would have had to sing "Oh, Canada" in front of everyone.

However, the non-Canadian alliance was not as confident in its singing skills or its team's hockey skills as it was in its trash-talking skills, and the wager devolved into a prize of wine, with the price of the wine determined by the spread between goals scored by the winners vs. the losers.

Turns out the wine prize scheme was a wise choice for the non-Canadians, but the chance to make history was lost. The singing prize was clearly the stuff of legends in the making.

Meanwhile, the closing ceremonies were a hoot. Kudos to Canada for doing such a nice job, with such a gracious sense of humor.

Of course, any production that includes Neil Young can't be too far from the mark.

Iguanas Dropping Like Flies

We don't have snow falling on cedars, but.....

I bet you thought I was kidding when I said it was so cold here that iguanas were falling from trees. Well, here's the proof.

Fortunately, I don't have any of these giant reptiles living in my yard. But I do have a rather large Cuban lizard residing in one of my palms, and he hasn't yet fallen to earth. Maybe next week. It's supposed to remain unseasonably cold for us Florida wimps.

Meanwhile, J.G. is dealing with the cold in New Orleans, where she is attending a conference. We bought her a scarf and stocking cap before she left, so she should be good.

Puzzle, Day Four

I didn't do much before noon yesterday except work on the puzzle. It's been chilly here (last night was in the upper 30's, which seems very, very cold to us Florida lightweights). So it was nice to stay in, listen to NPR, drink coffee, and knock out a bunch of presents and that part of the edge, too.

Now, if I could just get a handle on those darn reindeer.

Wintery Fix

It doesn't snow here, although it gets what we call cold. For us lightweights, that's anything below 70 degrees. Right now, for example, it's 42 (feels like 34) and sunny for me, and 48 (feels like 43) and fair for C.S.

When we want a cold weather fix, we head to the webcam at Plymouth State University in Plymouth, New Hampshire. I used to live in Plymouth, and we went there on vacation two summers ago. It's the quintessential New England town, complete with a common, a bandstand, a statue of a boy scout, and an old mill that's been turned into classrooms and performance space for the university. If we lived there instead of here, our morning would look like this:

instead of like this:

Who Cooks for You?

Back to Leu Gardens today, for a dose of sunshiny winter beauty. It covers nearly 50 acres and includes everything from a citrus grove to a butterfly garden to a collection of over 2,000 camellias. Today it also included a special visitor. The blue jays spotted him/her first, and their belligerent antics and shouts of "Snake! Snake!" quickly focused my attention high in the trees. My poor camera could hardly keep up. See anything here?

No, of course not. This is just a wacky photo of trees, sky and Spanish moss, taken by an inept photographer with a seriously inadequate camera. How about now?

I believe this is a barred owl, my first sighting! I missed the shot of his/her lovely wingspread from perch to perch. The book says it is nearly 4 feet, and I agree: it was very impressive. I abandoned the walkway and trailed along a little bit, hoping for a better look. He/she also treated me to 4 samples of his/her beautiful cry, which experts describe as "Who cooks for you? Who cooks for you-all?"

I even had the presence of mind to call up C.S. and let him listen via cellphone. It wasn't as hilarious as the time he had me listen to an Olympic bobsled run all the way from Salt Lake City, but it was just as cool.

Today's Highs and Lows

In the hope of fostering a good laugh today, here are today's temperatures: low of 41, high of 63.

What's funny about this? Everyone thinks it is freezing. As in, "OMG, I put on a sweater and long pants, and I'm still cold."

Yeah, I know. In addition to being lousy at driving, running elections, and preserving the natural beauty of our tropical paradise, we Floridians are temperature wimps.

In contrast, C.S. and I agree that it's wonderful to have a chance to wear a sweater or a jacket. C.S. was born up north and has lived all over, and I must have been a northerner myself in a previous life. We may be the only people in the state whose teeth are not chattering.

Solargraph

Despite my semi-secret resolve to talk about books more often, this amazing photograph has preempted today's intended book review, at least temporarily. It was taken in one long exposure between the winter and summer solstices by photographer Justin Quinnell, using a homemade pinhole camera. You can read more about it here:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/3496139/Stunning-photographs-of-landmark-captured-over-six-month-period.html

My Winter (or, One Sign I'm Lucky to Live in Florida)

I spent the afternoon at Leu Gardens and it was simply fantastic: sunny and mid-70's, with birds and butterflies galore. There are many, many sections to the 50 acres, including a tropical stream, vegetable and herb gardens, a white garden, and a rose garden. Spectacular!

"Winter" in the White Garden

One more from Leu Gardens. The White Garden contains only plants with white flowers, and many of them have variegated foliage, as well. Lovely!

Cup of Joe -- Not a Drop to Drink

Time to check in with a few updates from the road. I managed to escape Las Vegas with a tidy (tiny?) profit of $5.05. Then again, I stopped betting with five days left in my stay, at the precise moment I lost an NFL game that looked to be in the bag late in the fourth quarter. Vegas wasn't my kind of town -- so fake -- and I told J.G. I had no intention of ever going back. From Vegas, I traveled on to Idaho. The Nevada-Idaho combination allowed me to check two new states off my to-see list, leaving me only Montana, New Mexico, Hawaii and the two Dakotas to reach all 50 visited. I'm staying at a beautiful bed and breakfast (see fuzzy photo below), where this morning we spotted a bald eagle settle onto a tree branch along the snowy banks of the Snake River, right outside our back window. Then came about three or four more inches of snow, and a startling discovery. This region of Idaho is heavily populated with members of the Church of Latter Day Saints, and that realization set in when I searched about Rexburg, a bucolic town of about 25,000, for a simple cup of coffee. I'm not talking latte, I'm not talking espresso. I'm talking Folgers, Maxwell House, Sanka -- anything. "Sorry sir," the woman at the register at Walgreen's informed me. "Rexburg is not a good coffee town. I can recommend a few places for hot chocolate. But the closest place to get a decent cup of coffee is Idaho Falls." Well, I wasn't about to drive 30 miles, through a snowstorm, no less, for a cup of coffee. But I spent the rest of the day craving caffeine, and I'm still thirsting for a sip. Maybe on my way back to Florida tomorrow.

Blurry, But You Get the Idea