The Old and the Restless

Shore birds A group of black skimmers. They lay their eggs in shallow depressions in the sand. Two black skimmers with a ring-billed gull looking at the camera. A closer look at the skimmers posing with Royal Terns.

I met Carolyn one day while I was in the New Smyrna Chamber of Commerce. As I do every year, I was asking for cycling maps. Carolyn overheard and asked how far I usually ride. Translating kilometres to miles, I said about 30 miles. When she said that she was a cyclist too, we exchanged phone numbers and tentatively decided to ride on the last weekend in January. Carolyn and her husband, Bill, drove us to Deland and led a lovely ride around several lakes near Deland. The area is known for growing ferns. Formerly, the ferns were grown in the shade under the trees. Now, they are grown under cover. These photos were taken in front of one fern farm.

Sandhill Cranes near Deland. Look carefully. There are two sandhill cranes here. Two Sandhill Cranes trying to get out of the picture. Paul says this is a diamond back rattlesnake. It was more afraid of me than I was of it. Box tortoise in Canaberal National Seashores Park. More egrets at the jetty And. finally, a pelican at the jetty.

Many butterflies were flitting around this bush. Egrets at the jetty. One of the creatures lurking on the beach. Maureen and Ramsay stayed with us for a few days. We played a lot of Bridge (Sandra needs the practice) and walked the beach, weather permitting. It was a windy day. The surf was high but at low tide it was still a good walk. Four on the beach. It looks as if we aligned ourselves from the shortest to the tallest. Lunch at JB's fish camp. Paul wanted this in because he thought he and Ramsay looked good. I caught Maureen by surprise here.

Megan arrived home on December 21, to find water running throughout the house. Despite her fear of electrocution, she went into the basement, turned off the water and called the plumber. Michael helped her with the inital clean-up before we returned on Dec 22. The hose in the master bedroom vanity (shown above) seems to have been the culprit. Notice that it has "popped" out of the coupling. The question was "did it fail spontaneously or did it freeze?". [The insurance adjuster said the hose could fail spontaneously; but, since it failed in winter, the likely cause was freezing (an uninsured event).] Water flowed from this hose down the hot air vent "frying" the furnace circuit board causing the furnace to fail. At some stage, the house did freeze. The picture above shows the two hose segments that failed. They were sent for analysis to detect possible ice scarring using an electron microscope. Notice the ice fracture on the hot water hose into the main ba...

This year Jane and Daryl hosted the Christmas Day dinner for the extended family. The giant Christmas tree in the great room. Cooking Christmas dinner. Having wine and munchies before dinner. Grandma chatting to grandson before Christmas dinner. Two Queens and a King wearing their Christmas hats during dinner. The toast to Christmas and the New Year. At the end of the Christmas Day, all but Joshua (who was asleep) posed for the group photo.

Mark's family started the celebration of Christmas with dinner Christmas Eve (also Sandra's birthday). Joshua entertained himself by "talking" on the telephone before dinner. We were invited to join in the festivities this year because of the "flood" at our home. This glum group includes: Mark's brother, his grandmother, and his mother. The smiles came out for the family photo of the entire group after dinner. Seated round the table after dinner.