Happy Holidays

We drove to NJ for Christmas.  And while there, we learned that the closing for our new house has been moved off once again - now it won't be finished until mid-February.  So we will be "commuting" between NY and NJ for several more weeks.  Sigh.

Quilt #28

This one is for the guest room in the new house.  This is just the top.  I'll wait until I get to NJ and rent time on a long-arm to quilt it.

This is a closeup of just a few of the blocks.  Each quilt is a learning experience.  In this case I discovered that fabric for a stack-n-whack can be too busy and have too many colors, but I used all the blocks anyway.

On Our Way to Camp

We had an uneventful flight from Ft Myers to Newark this morning.  We were very lucky.  Most of the flights yesterday were canceled due to a big snowstorm along the east coast.  We picked up our car from the airport hotel and drove to Albany, which had at least a foot of snow.  We are staying here overnight and will do some Christmas shopping tomorrow then drive to camp, where the high tomorrow is forecast to be 2 degrees.  Brrrr….

Last Day

We rented bikes from the resort this morning and had a nice ride along some of the many bike paths.  More beach walking this afternoon.  Headed back to NJ tomorrow.

Paddling the Commodore Creek Trail

We  had a great paddle through the mangroves this morning.  The winds were fairly high, so getting across the bay in the floating bathtubs the rental place calls kayaks was interesting.  But once we got into the mangroves it was beautiful.  We saw several yellow-crowned night herons.

And a couple little blue herons, plus others it was too difficult to photograph.

Then when we got back to Casa Ybel, there was a pileated woodpecker in the palm tree above our car; quite a different setting from when we see them at camp.

Ahhh……..

A Walk on the Beach

Today is quite gray and cooler, but still good for a walk on the beach.  There were a couple snowy egrets on the beach and a double-crested cormorant.

 And we always enjoy the plantings around the resort, especially the hibiscus.

Another Day in Paradise

We drove through Ding Darling Wildlife Refuge today and saw the usual collection of birds.

Late afternoon we took the boat trip from Tarpon Bay Explorers.  We saw lots of birds coming to roost for the night, including pelicans on many of the channel markers.

We headed back to shore during a beautiful sunset.

To Sanibel, Florida (and away from the snow and cold)

We left camp yesterday morning and drove through snow and ice to Newark, NJ.

We stayed overnight at the Marriott airport hotel.  This morning we headed to the airport through a snowstorm and waited for our flight to take off.  We were only a couple hours late, which wasn't so bad considering the weather.  At least the flight wasn't canceled.  Here we are being de-iced on the runway.

We landed in Fort Myers in beautiful sunshine with temperature about 80 degrees.  A definite improvement.

Sunset on the beach, with many more to come.

Merry Christmas

We have nothing Christmasy here so I decided we needed something to put us in the mood.  So I designed and sewed this hanging.