The View From my Adirondack

I have always loved Adirondack chairs, to me they just say beach. I decided that our place in Ft. Myers needed one, we are not on the beach, but close enough, we are on a pond, near the beach!  After a little research online, I found that the local Ace Hardware offered a smaller version, that looked like it would be perfect! Some assembly required.....

 I decided to stain it to match the other furniture, BEFORE I put it together.

 And it fit perfectly in the corner, right in front of one of our picture windows...

I decided to go back and purchase the ottoman, assembly on that was much easier!

The view from the Adirondack...... Ahhhhh....

 We love to watch the pond, and have named some of the resident birds.  

Our neighbor had finished the area at the back of his condo with these awesome shell shaped stepping stones....of course I loved it and wanted to continue it to our property. 

 So our neighbor shared their stones with us and we put this together! How nice is that and how good does this look? Awesome, huh?!

This last trip, I was sitting in my Adirondack and noticed one of the smaller gators sunning himself under that middle palm tree...

 As I was watching him, I noticed something off to our left in the pond, just behind our neighbors....it took MANY photos, to finally catch it, it would come up for only a second, then quickly disappear...

 What in the world is THAT??!?
It really freaked me out, I labeled him a pond creature and sent a pic to our daughter Jess, a veterinarian....she seemed as freaked out as I was!! She mentioned at work, and one of her coworkers who is familiar with Florida, says it is a Bottle Nose Turtle (or Florida Softshell Turtle)! I looked it up, and sure enough that was it! Jess also warned us that they can be quite aggressive!

*Picture from Google

*Picture from Google

Okay, so we will continue to view the pond from the Adirondack, inside....where it is safe!!  :) (and VERY comfortable!)

Lily even likes it, she uses the ottoman as a ladder!!

What does the view from YOUR Adirondack look like??

::Hugs::

Sanibel Morn

Another beautiful morning in paradise.  Hubby decided to sleep in so I went to Sanibel solo this morning, the shelling was ok, but the views continued to impress.  I will clean the shells we have tomorrow just to show you what we have.

Love the colors this morning....notice the bright crescent moon, looks almost like a typical Florida postcard, don't you think?

This morning's greeting came from a squadron of pelicans in nearly perfect formation...

The sunrise was once again beautiful and nearly on fire!

Live was the theme again this morning, like this bright sea star....

 Lightning Whelk egg cases were all over the beach this morning, quite a few more than yesterday.

 These ibis were very bold in their mating colors....they almost look painted!

We spent a lot of time today working on projects at home, and when we sat down for lunch we got to see 'Big Bubba' ! I would guess he was 5 or 6 feet long. He was in the pond behind our house.....Lily, our chihuahua will not be spending time out back!!

I went and checked on our owl neighbors, and the 'babies' were still hanging out together on a different branch.....

....While Mom or Dad watched from the next tree....

I have to say, this trip has shown us so much wildlife! I love it!!!

Hopefully I will have some shell pics for you tomorrow along with all the wildlife!! Stay tuned!

For now, come along on the stroll with me this morning, sit back and just relax.....

::Hugs::