And New Planting

Along with care and attention to what was severely damaged by the heavy frost in January, our landlady Peggy and her partner, Bud, have planted many, many new bushes and trees and flowers over the last five weeks.  Visiting the other night, Peggy commented that they like to garden and I commented that we like to appreciate other people's gardening.  A good match!  Anyway, here is some of what has been planted over the last several weeks.  Enjoy!

Photo 1 above:  Some of the many potted plants waiting to be planted by Bud.  In the foreground is a Hong Kong Orchid tree.  In picture 3 you will see a better close up of the blossom.  They are beautiful.

Photos 2 and 6 are of new hibiscus plants.  In total, Peggy and Bud have planted 11 new hibiscus bushes.  Initially, in conversation with Rob, Bud commented that he digs sand up in one place, replaces it with soil and a new plant and then uses the sand in another place to support growing plants.  He has moved a lot of sand over the last few weeks - some of it more recently has been used in helping to lay the new patio stone in their back yard. 

Picture 4 is a gorgeous white amyrillis, one of many planted outdoors by Peggy this past year.  Picture 5 is the new fan palm and just down the yard a ways - you don't get a picutre - are two new banana palms.  In front of the fan palm is another flowering bush that was just planted the last couple of weeks.  Picture 7 is our front yard with a look at some of the new planting but there has been much more since this photo was taken.

We had a good conversation with Peggy and Bud the other night.  The unit here in Englewood is ours next winter, December to March, if we want it.  We said we would confirm with them after we make our house hunting visit to Melbourne over the next couple of days. 

Speaking of which, we were talking to the real estate agent this morning.  Only one of the ten properties we sent to him is going to be on our list of properties to actually see.  Several of the ten are already under contract and 3 of them were properties he would not encourage us to consider.  In due course we will let you know how we make out.

We leave tomorrow morning.  Hopefully, we will be bringing warmer weather home with us. 

Beautiful Gardens

Early in January - you may recall - we told you we had a couple of heavy frosts.  As much as our landlady tried, she was not able to save everything from the drastic effects.  For three or four weeks, we had a very dismal looking garden - brown and black.  We weren't sure - she wasn't sure - if everything, or even if anything would come back.  Well, it did!  Here is the proof:



The banana palm - first pic above - did come back.  It was easily twice as big when we arrived in January but it is growing.  Pic #2 above - a vine that will have many, many small white flowers, was totally shot - just a lot of spindly twigs like you can see in the upper right hand corner.  I soaked it so well one day that it started to sprout the next and is growing very well.  Pic 3 is the bougainvillea at the front of the house on Peggy's side.  It was very brown on January 4th but it is flowering beautifully now.  Pic 4 is the bougainvillea that is blooming just outside our back door.  Pic 5 is another plant that was virtually black the day after the second heavy frost.  It is blossoming now - beautiful white cups that open up and a second red blossom protrudes.  Pic 6 is one of the many orchids that Peggy has outdoors.  How it survived, I am not sure.  But it has been blossoming non-stop for the past month.  Then there are the new plants that were purchased and painstakingly planted by Bud (Peggy's partner) over the last three weeks.  Gorgeous!!  They will be posted in a separate blog tomorrow.

Last Visitor Departed

We took Karen to the airport this morning.  As I write this, she has landed in Detroit and is probably on her way to baggage claim.

We left Englewood at 5:28 a.m.  It was very dark!  We arrived safely at the airport, as would be ovbious to any who are reading this post, and Karen was checked in and up to and through security by about 7:30 a.m.  Her plane was scheduled to leave for Detroit at 8:40 a.m.  According to the flight aware website, she left 6 minutes late and arrived 4 minutes early.

So, we have seen the last of our winter visitors.  And we will soon have seen the last of Englewood for this winter season.  Tomorrow begins our last week here.  We plan to speak with our landlady and make arrangements for next year before we leave.

Our travel plans home include a trip over to Cocoa Beach area again with a plan to stay there for two nights while we look at some houses.  Then we begin the drive home in earnest - with overnight stays currently booked for Walterboro, SC, Baltimore, Princeton, and Portland, ME.  We currently expect to arrive home no later than Good Friday, April 6th.

It has been a great winter!  Temps have routinely been 3 or 4 degrees above forecast.  Lots of sun, some breezes, occasional winds, and very few rain showers.  We had great visits with Gary, Barb and Dave, and Karen.  We have done a lot of reading, too much eating, a lot of enjoying!!  Can't wait to be back here - in Florida.  There will be at least one more post before we leave.  I want you to see some of the beautiful flowers and gardens that have indeed sprouted up, grown, and blossomed after we had the very heavy frost in January.  That will come your way in a couple of days.

Update from Englewood

First, let me assure you that the sparsity of posts is directly proportional to the absolutely glorious weather we have been having and are promised to have through the end of March.  We are both looking as golden as Jack!

We just completed a most enjoyable week of having Barb and Dave King visit with us.  They went to the beach every day they were here and left much more bronze than when they arrived.

We had a day trip to Venice - yum: more gelato!  We hiked through one of the parks in the middle of Englewood - paths, bridges, ponds of water, fish and fisher- folk.  Jack got to share in that.  We had a second day trip; this time to Siesta Key.

Siesta Key is a beach community north of Venice but on the southern edge of Sarasota right on the coast.  It is very congested with many, many upscale condo and villa properties.  A lot of them had "For Rent" signs posted.  It was a very busy Sunday afternoon when we were there.  We could not find a place to stop so it wasn't until after we were out of Siesta Key that we got a chance for a bit of a walk along the water - with a view of the city of Sarasota off in the distance - and a view of a tour boat with palm trees on the upper deck.

We were out for a couple of very nice meals.  Seafood at Howards - we all had different preparations of shrimp.  Lunch at Lock and Key on the beach here in Englewood.

Jack certainly enjoyed Barb and Dave's company.  He is already missing them.  Karen will be quite occupied once she arrives on Saturday.

We have completed travel reservations for our return trip.  Presently, we plan to leave here (Englewood) on March 30th and spend two more nights in Cocoa Beach.  We plan to see some more properties and see if something strikes us - we are both taken by that area of the state.

Our return trip home will include an overnight visit in Princeton with Aunt Mabel and her daughter Pat.  We should arrive in St. Stephen on April 5th.  Hardly seems possible that it is time to be thinking about returning north.

How time flies!

How time flies when you are having such a great time!  We had a wonderful two weeks with Gary visiting.  You have read some about our travel to the Atlantic coast.  Here is a bit more.

We indeed saw two houses in the Cocoa Beach area.  The price of them both was very surprising.  I told the real estate agent we wanted both when he asked what our thoughts were.  The first was large in  C.B., 5 minute walk from everything and very reasonably priced.  The second was in Palm Bay, much newer looking though only built a couple years more recent.  Ready to move in and very cheap.  We will have to think!

On Sunday we drove across Florida again back to Englewood.  On our way, we made two stops:  one in Lakeland to visit and have lunch with Jean F. from Saint Andrews.  She has a place in an RV Park - very nice!  Then we stopped to see manatees near a power plant at Apollo Beach.  Very impressive!

Gary's last week with us was ideal Florida weather for a snow bird - temps were forecast at 25/26C high every day for the last week and we never had a high temp under 28C, feel like 35/36C.  Lots of walking and biking and making use of our backyard patio and furniture for sitting out, sunning, reading, afternoon cocktails, and meals out.  Also made good use of the electric barbecue.

Jack has been a real trooper through the heat.  We got our walks in every morning which were still warm and muggy but somewhat enough cooler than the rest of the day that Jack enjoyed chasing his ball.  The rest of the day, Jack enjoyed the air conditioning indoors as much as we did.  And sleep - man this dog can sleep!

We took Gary to the airport at mid-day yesterday.  Got him checked in for his flight to Toronto and then to Saint John.  He had a late-arrival time in SJ - 12:20 a.m. today.  He will be a tired puppy when he gets home.  We have a short break in visitors until Wednesday.  Lots of time to wash bedding, clean through the house, and get ready for Dave and Barb to visit.  They are driving down here from St. Stephen with a stop on the way to visit with their daughter(s) and grand kids.  They are with us for a week, then we have a break for a couple of days and then BJ's sister Karen arrives for a week.

We have a further week in Englewood after Karen leaves and then it is time to start back to St. Stephen.  We are in our last month!  Boohoo!!  Where did the time go?  It just flew by!!