Five whole weeks!

It's amazing but true: we left Toronto five weeks ago today, on a bone-chilling Thursday morning. Fast forward five weeks and here we are, lovely and warm. Blue skies, white puffy clouds, sunshine. Hard to believe we have to make our way home in just a few short days.

We have been driving around a lot and I have been taking what seems like a million photographs. Here are just three I captured yesterday. In particular, I couldn't get over the bar. I thought it was a broken-down, abandoned building. Nope. It was open. I wonder what the inside was like?

Yard sale booty

While I am not feeling 100% yet, one day of staying home was enough for me. We ventured out yesterday to get some groceries and grab a bite of lunch while we were out, and this morning we hit the local yard sales. Everyone knows I love "yard-sailing" and being on vacation only makes it more intriguing. Will I find local goodies that I wouldn't find at home? Only one way to find out: hit the streets and check out the sales.

The captain did a very cool thing for today's yard sale mission. He created a category in our GPS (we call her "Daisy") and then entered several addresses from the yard sale category in the local paper's classifieds. So, once in the car and ready to go, all we had to do was bring up the Garage Sale category and Daisy automatically sorted them by distance, with the closest one at the top of the list. Once we went to that one, we brought up the category again and once again we knew where the closest sale was, and how to drive there. It worked like a charm.

Above is a bit of the booty I bought today. A children's alphabet baking cookbook (L is for Lemon Squares, F is for Fudge Brownies, etc) put out in the 1990s by Gold Medal Flour: 25 cents. A book on identifying birds (with lots of colour illustrations) that I bought for collage, published in the 1950s: 25 cents. Two Disney beanies from "Alice in Wonderland" with their tags still attached, the Queen of Hearts (tag says $12 CDN) and TweedleDum/TweedleDee (tag says $18 CDN), both in excellent shape: one dollar each. A white Johnson Bros. ironstone dessert dish: ten cents. Snoopy at his typewriter (how perfect is that for me!): 25 cents. A holiday rubber ducky who lights up: the lady said, "no charge, just take it."

And then my favourite find. A set of eight Pyrex cups in the Butterfly Gold pattern from the 1970s along with their matching Corelle saucers: one dollar for all 16 pieces. Yes, one dollar for the entire set. Anyone who collects Pyrex like me knows what a score that is!

Also bought today but not photographed: a black plastic picture frame, about 7 inches or so in diameter, shaped like a jigsaw puzzle piece: 10 cents. And a coffee mug that reads "Operation Iraqi Freedom, Kuwait Naval Base": 25 cents.

I'd say today's yard sale mission was a success.

Staying close to the nest

Today is a day for me to stay close to the nest, just like the ospreys. Well, the captain and I aren't positive they're ospreys, but we're pretty sure. We saw these beauties yesterday when we were out-and-about, driving down roads we'd never driven down and seeing places we'd never seen. It was a wonderful day. But today I am not feeling like myself, so we're sticking close to home. You can't hide from aches and pains, even when on a getaway. It's not just me under the weather either -- it's been pouring here this afternoon. So I guess I picked a good day to nest!

Happy LOVE Day!

To you and yours, Happy Valentine's Day! And contrary to the sign above, I hope your love is given and received freely!!

Pups just wanna have fun

Dogs are not allowed on the beach here. It's right on the signs, a bylaw no-no. And we were told last year that this was heavily enforced. We guessed that was true since we hardly ever spied any dogs on the beach last February. But this year we've seen several. They have such fun and I think if we were down here with a dog, I'd cheat on that bylaw too.

I took this photograph late this afternoon after the captain noticed the two playful pups (mother and baby?) and I worried that even with my strong zoom, I'd get lousy photographs of the two frolicking at the ocean's edge. They were pretty far up the beach from our balcony and even though I hoped they'd come closer, they never did.

Some of the images aren't very good, but a few are definitely keepers. With this one, I cropped in tight and applied a painterly effect with ps. Click on the photo to see it bigger (which you can do with all the photos I post here on my blog). I'm quite pleased with how it all turned out. I hope the dogs would be too!

Myrtle, Mary and Martha

In my last post I told you about our futile efforts to find a specific historic cemetery. I told you how we tried our best but could not locate it, but that I had discovered better directions and we would try again. Well, this is SO embarrassing. Yes, we set off again to find it and...guess what? Not only were we close, but we actually drove right by the entrance. Twice. In our defence, it was a narrow residential street off the main road that had an unexpected equestrian facility complete with hurdles and as we drove down this street, our eyes were naturally drawn to it. "Look at that," we both said. Driving back up the street after turning around at the bottom, we again looked at the horses as we drove by. So, of course, you guessed it -- the small cemetery is directly across the street from this equestrian area. The captain and I couldn't believe both of us missed it. Ah well, to be expected when you explore.

This cemetery is really something. It is supposedly haunted and while we didn't see any ghosts (I don't think they come out on sunny afternoons), I was a little creeped out by how spongy the grounds were, as if I was going to sink down...down...down any minute. I also learned on google that it goes by two names: Georgiana Cemetery and Crooked Mile Cemetery, which was part of the problem in finding specific directions as I thought it was called Georgiana Graveyard. You wouldn't think that would matter, cemetery or graveyard, but it does. This little graveyard also has no sign of its own, nor are there any markings or signs on any of the surrounding streets indicating it's there. It's like this little secret.

There were several old tombstones, but the one above particularly caught my eye. I typically do not visit cemeteries to photograph tombstones, as it seems like an invasion of privacy to me. However, when they are unusual or historic I will capture their image -- and the sad one above is both. It first caught my eye as my grandmother's middle name was Myrtle, but then I read the whole thing and was almost overwhelmed. Did these little girls die in a fire? A capsized boat? Some other type of accident? It's a tragic mystery.

Getting off the beaten path

Maybe I was an explorer in a past life. I love getting off the main drag and checking out what the side roads offer. Today the captain and I had a small itinerary: first stop, a rummage sale at a local seniors' centre in a private, gated community we've been curious to see; second stop, an old church and historic cemetery I had read about online, located on a back road we had never driven down; third stop, lunch; fourth stop, another historic graveyard I had found online, albeit with limited information.

First stop, a success. We spent just six bucks and walked out of the community centre with two bags full of stuff, including lots of old sheet music. Second stop, a huge success. Not only did we find the church and cemetery -- small but very photogenic, including a few graves of men who had served in the Confederate Army during the Civil War -- but much to my delight, an abandoned farmhouse was directly adjacent to the church's property. The farmhouse and crumbling sheds were separated from the road by barbed wire, but I was able to walk right up to the wire and capture many photographs. Above is one of the abandoned sheds. A real photographic goldmine.

Lunch was a success too: homemade cheeseburgers at a local small cafe that's only open for breakfast and lunch. The captain and I couldn't resist the homemade peanut butter pie for dessert and I was tickled to discover chunks of chocolate in the filling. Yum. And only $2.75 per slice -- try to find that in Toronto for homemade pie!

Unfortunately, our fourth stop was not a success -- try as we might, we could not find the second historic graveyard, even though we were positive we were in the right vicinity. Finally we said 'uncle' and headed back to the condo, where I did more research online and eventually hit pay dirt. It turns out we were oh-so-close. We now have quite specific directions and a future adventure awaits.

Our alligator alley

Back in 2007, the captain and I were here in Florida, driving around, and just as I complained, "All these years coming here and I've never seen even one alligator...," we glanced into a ditch and there was one, large as life. A little further down the ditch, another. How we could have constantly missed them is beyond me, but we don't miss them anymore. There is one section of Merritt Island where we always see several alligators every time we drive along; it's our own personal "alligator alley". But today was special, as we spotted not one but two alligators right beside each other, catching some rays. Even with my zoom, it was difficult to get them both in the photo, but I tried my best. I also thought I saw a bald eagle, which do have nests here, but after a second drive-past, we think it was a falcon. We also saw an armadillo as well, rooting around in the grass. It was an Animal Planet day.

Home away from home

Really, the sign says it all. Our sentiments exactly. For the captain, returning to Florida's Brevard County is like returning home; he spent many years here growing up and he's so comfortable here. And for me, it is indeed my home away from home as well. And moving here? Not in the near future -- at least, not without a lottery win -- but it is a dream.

But it is now February and we are comfortably settled into our condo, the same one we rented last year. Groceries have been bought, clothes put away, and we now look forward to a month of relaxation!