Time to say Goodbye to paradise, once again!

Where is the good in goodbye?  ~Meredith Willson

Hubby and I spent some more time on our patio today, we even let Lily join us (on a short leash, just in case there are big birds or gators back there!) for a time...and believe it or not, she found her some sticks! I don't know what it is but she loves it at the beach, and now here!! She just chews them up into little bits!

The funniest thing happened while we were out there! We have 3 resident anole (lizards) that live in the bird of paradise bush out back, Wilbur, a dark male, Jeanette, a blonde, and Sally, the baby. Jeanette was peeking at us over a leaf of the bush, and I tried to focus on her, but the auto focus wouldn't do it! This is out of focus, but you can see her head and the outline of her body through the leaf!! 

It would have been a GREAT picture if my camera would have cooperated! When I finally did get it back in control, I caught her peeking out of the end of the same leaf!

We finished up a few things around the house and began the preparation for leaving : (   ...oh, I redid the den to accommodate our new picture!

We decided to head to Sanibel for dinner at Gramma Dots and then to check out the beaches one more time, though the timing was not going to be good since low tide is at 10:00 and we were going for an early dinner....but we had to check it out!! After a wonderful dinner of fish and chips, we headed to the lighthouse beach, it looked like Coca Cola! Very dark and had lots of grass, and the wind was making if very rough, so we headed over to Gulfside City park.  It was much calmer there but the tide was pretty high, there was very little beach!  We stayed for a couple of hours and got to see some dolphin...I actually snapped one picture...and got him!!

We saw this one alone, and 2 or 3 other groups of at least 2. What a wonderful way to say goodbye!! We also ran across this live...or was...Pen Shell!! We had never seen one with the animal still in it!! Most of them are full of sand or shells and the animal is long gone!! I don't think this guy is going to make it, because his shell is so badly broken.

We decided to leave when the $ ran out on the meter, though I think staying may have paid off pretty well because the tide was obviously dropping pretty rapidly, and I could tell that there might be something out there, but we had a lot to do to get ready to leave for the 2 day trek home tomorrow!! We found very little to nothing early on, but walking back to leave I found 2 beautiful small lightning whelks with deep color so I grabbed them up!! I was also looking for partial whelks for 'angel bodies' to make for my grandbaby girls, ...that didn't pan out either, maybe next time!

Once again it is time to say goodbye to this wonderful place! It has been a great week, and we feel like we have accomplished a lot. We made our new home in paradise a little more 'homey' and got to check out our new neighborhood by exploring new beaches, restaurants, and stores.  I'm slowly learning my way around Ft. Myers, but wouldn't do it without my GPS!! ...at least not yet! Thanks for tagging along with us on our adventures, we are heading back up north, maybe I will have things to post from there soon!

::Hugs::

Cheri

Homebodies Part II

Home is a shelter from storms - all sorts of storms.  ~William J. Bennett

Hubby and I stayed around the house for the most part today, I did a little bit of shopping early this morning, you know important stuff, toothbrush holders, hot mists and towels, trays, placemats etc. Fun stuff in the correct colors to go with the decor I'm trying to go with!  I'm trying to change all of the reds to neutrals with teal blue or Aqua.  This is really a lot of fun!

Now all I need are chairs!! :)  That is the next project when I get home! I'm in no hurry though, we love it here, at this home!!

My Mom gave us a table as a housewarming gift...I have ALWAYS wanted a shadowbox table!! Hubby and I put it together today. I painted it because it only came in white, and I didn't think it would work with everything so I painted it espresso brown! That was a lot of trouble as I messed it up and had to redo parts of it!! But it turned out great!! We decided to put it in our lanai off of our bedroom. 

I brought some of our special shells from home to put in it, the pictures didn't turn out so well because of the glass top, but I think you can make it out!

I also put on our new bedspread on our bed....slowly but surely it's all coming together!

 While I was shopping today, I found a painting that I fell in love with, it is hard to tell, but it has a deep aqua background, and ties it and all the neutral colors together in the living room! I had to go back and get it because I couldn't stop thinking about it!! I will have to rearrange the pics I showed you yesterday, but that's okay!! I absolutely love it!!

....and of course I bought a couple of pillows to match too!! I forgot to take a pic of that, it will have to be in the next post!!

We enjoyed more time on the 'deck' today, this ibis was as interested in us as we were him, I think he was looking for some food!

We will probably go to the beach tomorrow, not sure where, Sanibel or Bunche, but hopefully I will have more adventures to share with you on our last day in paradise found!

::Hugs::

Cheri

Home Bodies and Birds day!

It takes hands to build a house, but only hearts can build a home.  ~Author Unknown

We became home bodies today, we hung around the house, finished up the serious cleaning, and ate both meals here today! We made time to set out back at the pond and enjoy it up close and personal!! (Until the automatic sprinklers came on! :)  Ahhhhh this is the life! I sure could get used to this!! We have considered changing our cell phone numbers and just 'disappearing' no one knows where our house is but Jess and Brad, and they won't tell (even if they remember!) :)

The ducks here are colored just a little different than at home, she hung around our pond this morning! 

All the other birds we see around here are egrets, osprey, ibis, storks etc.  I'm not sure if there are any 'regular' birds around here, like chickadees and sparrows or cardinals and robins!! But that's just fine!! We see flocks of egrets or ibis all the time flying overhead!!

This osprey was perched on this house across the pond just checking our his domain!

While I was writing this, I noticed a 'battle' between a Great Blue Heron and an Osprey.  The Heron was at the top of the roof where the osprey had been earlier, and the osprey was being very vocal about it!

Before too long, the heron decided to do some fishing, and left his place 'at the top!'

I worked some more at making things 'homey' around here, got a few pictures hung...

Remember these?

I love this, in case you can't read it, it says "How beautiful it is to do nothing and then rest afterward" :)

...and got the guest room cleaned up and bed made with 'our stuff'!

Appropriate for 'Shelllady' don't you think?

I just have to patch some holes from the other curtains and hang the ours!!  It's ready for you .....come on down!! :)

I am going to wait to hang the curtains in the den until I get some more curtain rods, and we are probably going to have some window work done, so I will wait until that is done.

Enough for now, it's slowly but surely becoming our own!!

::Hugs::

Cheri

I love this place!!

Those who dwell among the beauties and mysteries of the earth are never alone or weary of life.  ~Rachel Carson

Hubby and I worked around the house again today, working at giving our new place a thorough cleaning and I did a little shopping for more things to make it more our own.  I also worked on another craft that I have had in mind for a long time, ever since I found this cool seahorse.

I collected a bunch of sand on our last trip to Sanibel and strained it to get out the bits of shell, it was damp so I waited until it was good and dry.

Then added it to the seahorse in the glass cylinder....and added some of our bestest shells.  What do you think?? I love it!!

The pond at our back door continues to entertain us, it is so beautiful and just so calming, the big wall of windows upstairs and down allow us to lookout whatever we are doing! Hubby had to do some telecommuting and did so on our upstairs lanai looking out over the pond!  I accidentally caught this shot of a Wood stork who stopped in for a visit, he took off as I snapped the picture and I missed his head!

We decided to try to find the Fish House in Fort Myer's Beach for dinner again! This time it was a success!! Thanks Beth for the help, we never would have found it without it!! It turns out it is located on a canal behind a shopping center, there are signs but they are very small and we missed them the first time we tried!!

View from the Fish House Restaurant in Ft. Myers Beach

 We left the restaurant and stopped along the beach again, this time closer to Lover's Key, but found nothing on the beach to pick up...there were lots of broken Sand Dollars, and a few live ones, but nothing else.

We came back home and I snapped some pictures at the pond again it was so calm, just like glass!

Blue green heron....couldn't zoom fast enough to catch him up close!

reflection

reflection...does it make you dizzy?

Tomorrow is another adventure, and more changes in our new paradise!!

::Hugs::

Cheri